Leverage: Second generation
by scasfra
Summary: This is not a story about the team; it's about the team's children with sparkles of the original team on it. This story is for poestheblackcat, thank you for encouraging me to write it! Please R&R NEW CHAPTER
1. Chapter 1

**This is the beginning of the tale "Leverage: the second generation" and in this chapter we meet Collin, Eliot's boy and the current problem he's facing. **

**Luckily he has just the perfect team to help him find out who he really is; more will be developed as the story goes on.**

He takes the picture of its usual place on the wall; it's a small one, one of those that probably are used in passports and other documents like a driver's license. It doesn't matter how small it is, that picture will always have a great part on his life.

It's his momma and even though he never actually met the woman he finds the fact of simply looking at it very comforting.

He looks like her, he has the same pale skin and light blond hair of hers; his jaw his squarer though and the nose isn't hers. The rest is. Except for his eyes, his eye are dark brown and the woman's are blue just like Spencer's; that only proves the hitter could never be his biological father.

Collin doesn't care, Eliot never lied to him about being his father and until a few months ago it never made a difference, but now that he's starting to make questions he always comes back empty-handed; no one answers no matter who he asks. He's done with it; he's going to find out about his real parents and luckily he has just the perfect team for it.

**I now this one is small but I am trying to set the compass on the story; the next will introduce the other kids and will be longer.**

**If you are excited to meet the Leverage kids, please review. **


	2. Chapter 2

**This one is longer, just as I promised, the next ones will be too…**

Their house is huge because Hardison bought the entire building above the brewery three weeks after Izzie joined the family, that way the adults could be close if anyone needed help with the kids and the said kids could hang around with each other freely without going outside. Also, everyone got to keep their privacy.

As time passed several windows and doors were open on the walls, connecting every apartment with the others, and now that house looked like a labyrinth full of vents and passages they all could explore (Parker for example, never used the corridors to go from one room the other; instead she wanders around the high ceilings) and a mad security system not even the thief could defeat even though she kept trying.

His four cousins were at the living room in Sophie's and Nathan's apartment, hanging around.

Emily, one of the twins and Nathan's and Sophie's daughters, was sitting at the dinner table with her legs crossed at her ankles, bent back, as she played a chess game against herself. That girl had the dream of defeating her dad.

Her hair was caught in the back of her head with a pencil and her big blue eyes were focused and frowned as she thought of what to do next. She was wearing shorts and an old t-shirt with a discoloured image of a kitten on it. On her left side a note pad and a pen rested; she used it to write her ideas in her small, pragmatic, letter; she was all about ideas; that girl.

Collin was sure she'd take over the world someday, but right now she was a twelve-year old and that wasn't a part of her plans.

Her identical twin sister was sitting on the couch in a purple dress with a black strap and lace on the waist line. Autumn came out after her mother; she was never caught on surprise, always dressed for the occasion just because. She was barefoot at the moment, her dark, waved, hair, pulled back with a pink headband with a butterfly on it.

The girl was watching a French moving, repeating every pronunciation after she heard it; she had a good ear for those things, just like her mother.

Next to her was Jake, a ten-year old little monkey with actual dreams of world domination and the aspiration of being the world's greatest thief.

He was very smart and tall for his age. He was also ambidextrous, he could do anything he wanted with those hands of his as long as he was focused; that was his main problem. The boy's skin was a tone of coffee cream, his lips were chubby and his eyes were ginormous, full of eyelashes, always open to the world.

He was sitting upside down with his legs bent over the back of the couch as he tried to beat his mother records at picking padlocks with a bob pin.

His older sister, Izzie, was sitting cross legged on the floor, clicking on her mouse restlessly, trying to win some game, her round metallic glasses where on the tip of her snub little nose, deflecting attention to her freckled small face. Her eyes were bright green behind the lenses, perfectly contrasting with her straight red hair.

Izzie was older than her brother, but everybody outside the family thought she was younger; she was small and skinny yet jumpy; highly allergic to chocolate and a brain that allowed her to focus and do several things at the same time, characteristic she did not share with Jake.

She had an easy laugh and a golden hearth, a fearless girl that would follow them to the end of the world if she had to; her biggest fear was to lose her parents again.

Collin stood at the door frame with the picture of his momma folded in his hand, not really knowing how to aboard the subject.

Jake let his leg slip hitting Autumn on the shoulder as his hands worked on the padlock.

"Hey, I am sitting here too, you know?!" Her accent was Irish, it wasn't natural; she spoke like that just because she liked the sound of it. Her pronunciation was flawless so, why not?

"Sorry" he replied without even looking at her, still not moving his leg from the place that had hit her on the shoulder. "Was meant to hit you harder"

Izzie giggled, Emily rolled her eyes at the ten-year old boy and kept playing her game, taking a black pawn with a withe bishop.

Autumn took the padlock of his hands and start running as Jake chased her. Eventually she came up behind Collin to use him as a shield. The other boy would never get pass him so he jumped over a piece of furniture to reach the girl.

That's when she noticed the look on his face. "You are apprehensive. Why?" Emily took a withe knight using the black queen and stared at him, nodding at her sister's statement.

"I want to know where my parents are" he said jumbled with the sudden question. Jake was now on top of the furniture.

"All of our parents are in New York doing a job, you silly!" Izzie replied as she pushed her glasses up.

Emily bit her lip knowing that was not what Collin meant. Autumn, that was as good as reading people as her sister, hugged the blond boy by the shoulders, kissing him on the cheek friendly.

"No, I want to know where my real parents" Jake froze on the furniture, completely forgetting he was chasing the dark haired girl after hearing those words, Emily wrote something on her notepad and Izzie's lips parted on a stunned expression. Her character on the computer game died making a loud "Game over" sound echo on the room.

Autumn threw the padlock at Jake and faced Collin.

"Why now?" He shrugged; even Izzie knew where she came from.

**So, what are you first thoughts on the kids? And where did Izzie came from?**

**Are they helping Collin?**


	3. Chapter 3

The car parts he sold were defective, that killed hundreds of people and injured even more; of course there was no way to prove he knew the car parts weren't working properly when he sold them so he got sued in some million and walked away. Those million where much less that what he had won with the sales.

One of the victims came to them, her husband was dead and her twelve year old son was going to spend the rest of his life on a wheelchair, immobilized from the waist down and with reduced mobility of his arms. The money she had gotten from the sue wasn't nearly enough to pay all the medical attention her son was going to need that day forward.

The team did what they always did, they ruined that man's life, they took him his company, his house, even his family and finally they tainted his name forever, but this time, they didn't send him to jail; according to Nate jail wouldn't be enough for him; he needed something worst. Nate had the man sent to a psychiatric institution where he'd be locked up forever ultimately losing the one thing he had left, his mind.

The team sent money to all the families who had loss at that man's hands, of course money didn't replace their loved ones; still, that was all they could do after avenging them.

Parker was three months pregnant so she didn't much on that one job; her part was to check the victims list over and over again to make sure no one would be missed.

It was almost midnight and they were packing when she walked in to Hardison.

"We missed someone!" Her mouth was on a pout.

"It's okay, I am sure we still can send them some money"

"Money is not going to do it for her" She shoved the paper in front of him.

The Jackson couple had died in a car crash, there was one survivor though; a baby that had made it miraculously without even a scratch. She had no more family and was currently in the foster system. Hardison eyed Parker, he knew that baby either got lucky and went to a nice foster home just like him or didn't and ended up as screwed up as Parker had been, maybe even worse...

Six weeks later the girl was officially adopted by them, her name changing from Elizabeth Jackson to Elizabeth "Izzie" Parker Hardison; she was six months old.

* * *

"Are you gonna help me or not?" Collin growled, getting impatient.

"If you give me that picture maybe I can find her on some database" Izzie said, disconnecting from her game, smiling the way she did every time she had an excuse to hack something, like if she needed excuses.

"Yes, and maybe your birth certificate has some clues on it" Autumn added with her natural accent now. "We can find where you mother was when she had you and tart from there."

"My birth certificate says I was born here and Portland, that my dad is Adam Sinclair and my momma never got to sign it because she supposedly died in labour" Izzie ripped the picture from his hand; Autumn smirked, her brain racing.

"Well, we all know that's fake to keep you safe; Emily and I are not really the daughters of Sarah Jane and Tom Baker, are we? All we have to do is find the real one"

"If there is a real one" Jake pointed out, his hands still working on the padlock even though he wasn't looking at it. "I can search the house for it, though!" and he smiled widely, showing them his withe teeth, searching through uncle Eliot's stuff would be fun!

"Okay, so we should start with..." Autun was suddenly interrupted by her twin that had been silent until now, watching, thinking on that same creepy way her father did.

"Guys, guys you are getting that all wrong" The chess game was completely forgotten now, her hand grabbing the pen just in case.

"What, you have a better idea?" Her sister cocked an eyebrow at her not feeling so happy her plan wasn't good enough.

"Of course she has a better idea" Collin said with a straight face, he sure loved that brain of hers. "I mean look at her face!" Emily had that cocky smirk of hers, the one she used every time she figured out something no one else did.

She got up from her chair and started pacing the floor as she placed her thoughts in order, Autumn could practically listen to her sister thinking; if they had to choose, Emily would definitely be the evil twin.

"You are forgetting the most important piece of the puzzle" She started "Our family"

Seriously, did those guys really thought their parents wouldn't get all noisy in Eliot's business, trying to find out where the baby had come from? They were a family, they protected each other and if protecting meat to do some deep search on Collin's mother just to make sure the past wouldn't come back and bite Eliot in the arse they would gladly do it.

"Of course our parents know the true!" Autumn shouted a little bit disappointed her twin wasn't so brilliant after all, she shoved her curls behind her shoulder and starting pacing the floor herself, the others just watched as the twins joined forces. "They all know the true, the problem is we don't. And, I am pretty sure they are not going to answer us if we ask so the question is: how do we get that information from them?" Emily crossed her arms on her chest as her sister spoke, the answer already starting to from on her mind.

"Can't you do that brain thing your mother thought you?" Jake asked; Emily and Autumn both giggled; that would be ridiculous.

"Are you stupid? Those guys have Nathan Ford and Sophie Devereaux on their team, now if one is bad enough the two of them..." Izzie stated as if they were the enemy.

"We'd never get near the answers" Collin concluded, it sucked their parents were a bunch of misfits that could smile a con coming a mile away.

"Once again you are not looking at the big picture!" Emily pulled herself to the arm of the couch. "I said they knew the true, the question is how, because I am pretty sure Eliot didn't tell them everything either so; who's the most noisy one? Which of them has more trouble respecting each other's privacy?"

"Whooo" was the only sound that escaped Autumn's mouth as she understood what her sister was trying to say.

"Your mother?" Collin asked since Sophie always knew too much about people; she didn't do it on purpose, but that gift of hers could be annoying sometimes.

"My mother?" Izzie quizzed, Emily smiled.

"It's close, but it's not her"

"My father?" Jake asked distractedly as the padlock gave in.

Emily's and Autumn's stared at each other on one of those wordless conversations they often had.

They both could imagine uncle Hardison on his computer, keeping tags on Collin's mother just to make sure they'd never be caught on surprise. It was like half the work was done already.

**So what do you think? Is really the work half-done already? **

**Review and I will post the next chapter**


	4. Chapter 4

**The team elements have divergent opinions on how to deal with bumps on the road and fight about it.**

"Let me get this straight" Emily said as she pinched the bridge of her nose in a gesture of impatience, "You can hack into the Pentagon in record time, leaving clues behind that led the FBI to Chaos, avenging our mother and at least two Lucilles, but you can't hack your father's computer?"

They were at the Headquarters in front of the six screens TV, in the middle of the electronic chaos Hardison tended to create around him whenever he was onto to something. The idea was that Izzie would hack into the Headquarters' computer tracking down any information her father might have on Collin's mother; the only problem was the girl didn't want to do it.

Jake was trying to find something to do with some of electronic pieces scattered on the work table, the twins were both facing the hacker as Collin watched from behind, he had a feeling things were starting to get serious.

"I am sorry, I just can't" She shrugged, hugging her own body to shield herself from any discomfort.

"It's because you're adopted isn't it?" Emily asked violently. Her sister' eyes widened not believing what her twin had just said yet she smiled wickedly, ready to play the game.

Jake jumped from the table he was sitting on, playing with some kind of robot, ready to defend his sister.

"Hey!" He was shoved back by Collin's arm that hit him on the chest making him stumble back; the twins were still bombarding his sister with very inconvenient questions.

Autumn watched the girl carefully as she tried to make sense of her sister's words. "That doesn't make sense; she knows they love her and that she is as much of her daughter as Jake is their son..."

"Oh yeah? Take a look at her face." Emily insisted. Autumn approached the red-haired girl, her hands on the chair's arms trapping the hacker in.

"She's scared; Em, you're right... But why? Why would you be sacred after twelve years of living with us? Why now?"

"Maybe it's not her adoption that scares her, maybe is the fact Collin is going to find his real family, maybe she's scared he will leave..." Emily suggested

"I am not ever going to live you!" Collin shouted as he kept a struggling Jake against the wall he had pushed him onto. Yes, he knew the twins were messing with Izzie's head and that was a little bit cruel, he knew Jake wanted to protect his sister, however, he really needed them to do that, all of them.

"No I don't think that's it, she was so enthusiastic about this just a minute ago" Autumn reflected. "She only got scared after you told her she'd have to hack into Hardison's computer, even more after you mentioned adoption..." Autumn's face enlightened.

"It's a question of honour!" Emily cocked her eyebrows.

"I am sorry, Autumn, a question of what?"

"A question of honour! It is, isn't it?" She asked staring into Izzie's eyes.

"Oh, she still has conscience. That's adorable!" Emily said and wrote something on her ever-present notepad, as if she didn't have a conscience anymore.

"It's really inconvenient though!" Autumn added as if she thought a conscience was a bad thing.

"Still adorable, besides I am sure you can work you can work your magic around it.", Emily said with a shrug as she sat on the floor, even though she was astonishingly clever she wasn't half as good dealing with people as her sister was.

"You feel like you're betraying the man that saved your life by hacking into his computer, searching through his private things!" Izzie shifted in her chair uncomfortably, giving herself away.

"Look, you don't owe them anything, they adopted you not only to save your life, but because they loved you ever since they first saw you. Besides even though you're doing wrong, going through your father's computer and all, you're doing it for a greater good." Jake's face showed contempt at the "greater good" sentence, she was starting to sound like a brain washing politician. "Our parents break the for the sake of what's right... They won't judge you by staying at your cousin's side... I promise!" Izzie shifted again, avoiding Autumn's gaze.

Emily and Collin smiled knowing Autumn had just won Izzie's conscience, Jake was just disgusted that his own family was trapping his sister, manipulating her for profit. Her conscience was a good thing, the thing he admired the most about her.

He lost his the day he stole his first toy at Kindergarden, not caring the parents of the robbed child had worked hard to buy that toy, stealing it just because he could. Her sister though, kept her sense of honour and it sounded awful that the twins were trying to take it away.

Izzie started the computer.

"Autumn, give me my glasses please..."

"So we're doing this?" Autumn asked with a big smile on her face.

"Yeah, we're definitely doing this!" The red-haired said as she put her glasses on, Collin finally allowed himself to breathe. Emily sat next to Izzie on the left arm of the chair as Autumn occupied the other and they both kissed the girl on the face at the same time, hugging her so hard she had to struggle for air.

Jake abruptly got on his feet, he was mad the twins had entered his sister's head, reading her fears, crossing her privacy, using it to make her do what they wanted her to do...

"You two ever do that to my sister again and I swear I will rob you of everything you ever loved!" Jake was not a fighter type and he loved those girls, but no one messed with his beloved sister and best friend, not even the twins.

"You do that and I tell my dad who broke his model ship two months ago!" Autumn threatened casually, they were fighting like that all the time.

"Oh yeah?" He gulped. "Then I tell your mother I think she sings great and I'll encourage her to sing every time you are around!" Collin chuckled at the threat and decided to intervene before someone declared war.

"Whoa, nobody is encouraging aunt Sophie to sing, you hear me? Nobody!" Izzie twirled on her chair.

"Yeah, Jake, it's sweet you're defending me and all... Aunt Sophie singing? We would all suffer from that..."

"You are evil, you know that? Evil!" Jake shouted at the twins as he stumped on the floor.

"That's right; we are!" Autmun said happily.

"That's why you shouldn't get on the wrong side of us Jaky, boy!" Emily affirmed as she left the room pulling him with her, mischievously smiling.

"Where are we going?" Jake asked pushing her way, not wanting to be touched by the person he was mad at.

"Oh you know, just checking with Amy, telling her that we are not dead and nothing blew up yet..."

"Ohh, do you think she'll give us cookies?" He said all jumpy; excited with that idea. He didn't hold any resemblance with the boy that was so furious at her, just a few moments before.

"I don't know... I think uncle Eliot told her not to give us sugary things..." Jake abruptly stopped in front of her grabbing her by the shoulders with a very serious face.

"Can you get her to give us cookies, Em?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Two minutes ago you were seriously threatening me of making my mother sing and now you want cookies?" Jake brushed the back of his neck; that had been a little over the top.

"You see, there's a part of me that's mad at you two for what you did, there's a part me that actually understands why you did it and then there's a part of me that wants cookies, badly. Can you get us some cookies or not?" The girl responded by pulling him to her, surrounding his waist with one arm and squeezing him lightly as they walked.

They got back to the headquarters with a box full of Vanillas cookies; nobody ever ate the chocolate ones around Izzie; it made her sad she couldn't eat something she loved so much and the others didn't like to shove that on her face.

"There isn't any recent research on your mother on this computer..."

"Try starting your research twelve years ago when Collin was born and advance from there.", Emily said as she stuck a cookie in her mouth; Jake had three in his and couldn't currently chew with his mouth closed.

"You're gross, you know that?" Autumn threw a pillow at him.

"Do you think he still has records from twelve years ago?" Collin asked Emily, ignoring the current scenario of Autumn and Jake throwing things at each other behind his back.

"Hardison has records of everything" Em stated simply as she wrote something more on her notepad. A few minutes later the computer made a beeping sound and several pictures of Eliot's mother starting showing up on the screen, as well as pictures of different men.

As Izzie advanced on her father's research, men started disappearing from the screen until there was only one left.

"Well, I guess these are your parents!" Autumn and Emily said at the same time looking at the two only pictures on the screen.

**Are the twins really evil? What do you think?**

**Please review, your opinion on this story makes me very happy.**


	5. Chapter 5

Izzie twirled on her chair to face them, Autumn immediacy spotted concern on her fears again.

"I am not sure we should this..." Emily breathed deeply, getting exasperated with her cousin's behaviour.

"What now?" Collin half-shouted, he had been waiting for three hour and was starting to get tired.

"It's not a happy tale" Autumn said reading the girl's face.

"It's not like I expect my parents to live in pool house with two cars, a dog and 2.8 kids..." He smiled gently at Izzie "I can handle it, darlin'. Get on with it!" She gave him a side smiled and clicked the buttons.

"Let's start with your mom. She isn't like Eliot, never was of the books so it wasn't that hard to trace... I'll start from the beginning"

Alexandra Sanders, born August the 15, 1974, on a small town in Arizona of Polish and German ascendancy was the only child of Carolyn Sanders, father unknown.

Her mother was addicted to pills, couldn't keep a job, ended up working on a night club to sustain her daughter. Alexandra had a lot of stepfathers, none of them cared about the girl, most of them didn't even stay long enough to learn about her existence. Entered the system when she was eight, left at the age of thirteen when her mother was cleared and clean.

Failed the eighth grade three times and eventually left school, started using drugs at the age of fifteen, was expelled from home one year later over some new step-dad that didn't go with her face.

With nowhere and no one to go to, she used the money she had left to buy a new ID in which she was 18 so she could join the army. That's where she met and older fellow named Eliot Spencer, he was there for a couple of years now and became very protective of her. They both won a bronze star, why they did it's classified. Anyway, they left the army a few years later, he became what we know he did and she came back home.

Her mother wasn't with her step-dad anymore and they lived together for a while, however, several divergences led her to part again; this time though she never left town. It happens that when she came back from war, due to her instability and post-traumatic stress disorder she couldn't keep a job, a house or a friend so she started to hang out with her drug-addicts friends from school who were now running the drug business in town. She got romantically involved with the leader of the gang and joined them by running small errands and being pretty much the mail man when needed. Things went like that for several years.

Eliot crossed paths with her again in May, about twelve years ago, when the team went to do a job on her town, he started sending her money regularly after that under the Alias of Dr. Wes Abernathy; instead of using the money to rebuild her life she gave it to her boyfriend so she'd be taken more seriously and they could expand business. The Hospital records say she delivered a baby boy in November, the 29th that same year, yet never came back after she and the baby were cleared... That's probably because she brought you home...

Collin just stared at the screen not knowing how to react, sure he hadn't expect a perfect life but this? This was too screwed up.

"She loved you!" Emily stated softly as she rubbed his back, trying to relax him.

"Had she loved me and she had kept me! She had the money, why didn't she run away?" He shouted, finally feeling something, feeling so mad.

"She was scared, she had been alone her entire life, the only people that she had were bandits and drug addicts, she knew that was not the proper environment to raise a child but she still couldn't leave" Autumns voice was soft, she felt hurt too, hurt someone had harmed her cousin that much.

"She was emotionally dependent of your father, there was no way she would have the strength to leave him, she did had the strength to leave you though!" Emily added.

"How is that strong?" Collin asked as rancour emerged through is voice.

"She could have dumped you in a dumpster; instead she brought you to the best man she knew, a man she was sure would provide you with a better life than she could; she didn't simply left you, she made sure you were going to be safe and happy with the only person she trusted... What's that if not love?" Collin curled one of his hands into a fist covering it with his other hand, elbows on his knees, arms trembling as he stared down.

"What about my father?"

Johnny "The smoker" Reynolds was born in January 1971 and was the youngest of six siblings; his mother had three jobs to provide for her family and was almost never home, his father was an alcoholic with violent tendencies.

He started having problems with the cops at the age of ten and never stopped from there, during his adolescence was detained several times do to underage drinking and driving, aggression, indecency, selling drugs to minors and even starting a fire, the list could go on and on.

Johnny never had a real job since left home at the age of 16 and started his drug business with a few buddies' he knew from school, which he never finished.

Had several girlfriends during that time but none last, in fact, the longest relationship he had was with your mother. Johnny here didn't like children and even had one of his earlier girlfriends have an abortion, which explains why the father never showed at the Hospital when you were born.

"He probably didn't even know; she must have hidden the pregnancy from him so he wouldn't lay her of!" Autumn said.

"That would be the smart thing to do!" Emilly agreed.

Johnny always was a big fish on a small lake, carrying on with his business by implementing fear on people and corruption; ha had a few cops looking the other way for him.

When your mother started giving him money he decided to expand and started doing business with Mexicans.

That's all that I have, the research stopped about two years after you were born.

"Probably because uncle Eliot found out your dad was snooping around and had him stop." Emily concluded.

"Can't you do the rest on your own?" Collin asked, he couldn't let go now.

"It will take me a few hours."

"I can wait!"

**So what happens next? Where are Collin's parents in the actual days? Did his mother do good by living him with Eliot?**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry it took me so long but I wasn't sure if I should take this path or not…**

They waited three more hours as Izzie did her additional research, in that time Collin tried to teach Jake how to fight which completely failed since even the twins could take him down in less than ten minutes. The boy was fast and slinky though, which meant he could dodge pretty much any hit if he kept trying.

When Izzie called them back into the room Jake was teaching Collin a flawless method on how to pick a lock in less than two minutes and the twins were having one of their silent conversations that always crept the others out because they felt the girls actually were telepathic.

The hacker meant to ask Collin if he really wanted to know the truth, but decided not to; his face said pretty much everything she needed to know.

"Let's start with your father this time; as I said before he started expanding business and even made some deals with a group of Mexicans; that was smart. What was not smart was trying to double cross said Mexicans; they were not happy about it..." She paused not being sure she should or could continue; Crap! Why had she accepted to help Collin? That was officially the dumbest idea ever!

"Go on!" Collin asked, getting truly impatient to know how the feud between his bastard of a father and the Mexicans had ended.

"He was killed... hu... The Mexicans killed him..." The girl said abruptly, she wished she could have said it on a softer way; she simply didn't know how.

"What about my mother?" Collin asked reacting with an indifference the twins immediately spotted as him acting tough. Emily, who was sitting next to him lied her arm across his shoulders and Autumn quickly ushered Jake out of the couch, taking his place by Collin's side.

Izzie pushed her glasses up her nose the way she always did and clicked a button turning the screen black.

"Actually, there isn't much more on your mother, your father was killed when you were three years old and the entire band scattered, some went to prison, others died of overdose, your mother just disappeared."

"What do you mean, just disappeared?" Collin frowned, not happy with that answer.

"Well, she used to receive money from Dr. Wes Abernathy, right? One day his transference was blocked because the account he was sending money too didn't exist anymore. Alexandra sold the house and left town, not coming back. She erased herself from hearth, stopped using her phone, even her credit cards... Nothing!" She stated with a shrug wanting to finish that as fastest as possible.

"That's impossible!" Jake argued. "You can hack into the Pentagon and blame it on Chaos, but can't trace my mother, a simple citizen who, according to yourself never lived off the books?! Impossible I say!" Izzie lowered her head, not wanting to face Collin at the moment; he had hoped so much from her...

"She's lying!" Autumn whispered to her sister. "Why is she lying?" Emily elbowed her sister in the stomach. "What was that for?" Autumn cried.

"Because you can be really dumb sometimes!" Emily hissed back; it was late, Collin had heard them.

"You are lying?" He got up from the couch stepping towards the redheaded. "Why are you lying?"

"Yeah" Autumn insisted. "Why is she lying?... whooo" She finally understood it. "I am really dumb, aren't I?" She asked, buried her face on her hands, her twin coldly patted her back.

"You are, and there's nothing no one can do about it!"

"What are you hiding?" Collin asked, now face to face with Izzie on a very intimidating gesture. She didn't open her mouth. "'Gimme that!" He said taking the remote control from her hands. Jake immediately stood up.

"What is this? Bully my sister National day? I'm getting sick of yall... Holly crap!" His scream echoed throughout the entire room.

Collin had turned the screen on making a newspaper record pop up. "Prostitute found slain!" the title said. Along that there were several images of a dark haired woman on the morgue, some crime scene photos that made Autumn squeal and an Autopsy record. Emily sighed knowing exactly what they were going to face.

"This ain't my momma!" Collin stated coldly.

"Collin!" The twins called out, trying to appeal to his rational thinking.

"No, my momma's blonde; this woman has dark hair!" Izzie sniffed.

"They found her as Alaina Garcia, but soon found out that persona had only existed for five years before she was found, they run her fingerprints, tested her DNA, it was a perfect match with Alexandra Saunders, winner of a bronze star on her army duty..."

"It says there she was stabbed fifty seven times!" Jake pointed being immediately elbowed in the crotch by Autumn.

"The autopsy indicated a history of drug abuse and her medical records under the Alias of Alaina Garcia revealed she had contracted HIV two years before that... This was three years ago, she probably had some others Aliases, none that I could trace though; I'd say she was prostituting to pay for drugs... The guy that killed her also murdered other three prostitutes, he was convicted to death penalty, took the lethal injection last year..."

The room fell silent as everyone took in what Izzie had just said, even Jake was holding still in his place.

Collin tried to burst out the door, but Emily stopped him as tears started to fall from the boy's eyes.

"Let me go!"

"No!"

"What's wrong with you? Just let me!"

"I can't do that! We're not leaving you!"

He fell with his knees to the floor, as she embraced him, the words "That's not my momma, it can't be!" being constantly said as the others joined his embrace.

Soon the room fell silent again as four children hugged a broken boy...

**I know this chapter is a bet said but I promise things will cheer up from here and since I feel bad because this was really dark and short I'll be posting the next one as fast as possible!**

**Thank you to stick with me and please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**This chapter only serves to show how the children get along with each other. **

**I hope you like it.**

He twirled on the bed for the hundredth time that night when he realized the light from the hallway was on and two shadows were overcasting the blue wall of his bedroom, he turned around with teary eyes, the twins were at the door. Both of her hairs were lose now and they were wearing equal, light blue pyjamas which meant he couldn't possibly tell them apart.

"Somethin' wrong?" He asked in a muffled voice still nuzzling his pillow.

"You are sad!" Autumn said entering the room and pulling his covers down.

"Follow us" Emily added and they both turned around and walked.

"Oh, and bring your pillow!" one of them said already on the hallway.

He followed the girls through the labyrinth that was their home, from the apartment where he slept in and lived with his dad to the main one where they lived with their parents, they crossed the ample living room; the moon entered through the windows illuminating the chess table where Emily had played that day, colourful pillows scattered on the long couch where they had sat in.

They led them to their parents room where a painting of a very young and naked Sophie Devereaux rested next to a very old Nathan Ford, Collin ignored the first painting out of respect for his aunt frowning when one of the twins pulled the covers from the bed and entered it, laying on the right said.

"What are you doing?" He asked glaring at the girls.

"You are feeling lonely, we get that." The girl said from inside the bed.

"Because even though you feel like we are your family" the girl next to him added.

"And we are" the other one interrupting her.

"You found out today that your biological parents are dead without ever getting to know them..."

"So we thought you'd feel less lonely and sad if your slept with us, but our beds aren't big enough" The twin standing next to him started crawling inside the bed.

"Are you two kidding me, this is insane!" Seriously, there was something wrong with those girls.

"Why?" The twin on the left arched an eyebrow at him. "Three years ago we all bathed together, you didn't seem to have a problem with that then!"

"We were nine!" - He pinched the bridge of his nose. The girl on the right rolled over, already starting to fall asleep; her twin yawned.

"And now we are twelve! Quit being such a baby; it's just a sleep over it's not like we're going to hurt you or something..." She insisted as she got upset with him; they were just trying to help him, why was he being such a jerk about it? She pouted slightly and he waved his arms in a sign of defeat and entered the bed.

He was already accommodated in the middle of the twins; one on his left, slightly tugging at his pillow with her hand on his belly and the other on his right using his chest as a pillow: Her hair tickled his nose, but he did nothing to brush it away, it smelled like apple.

He was falling asleep when he heard the distinctive flicker of a switch being turned on; the light on hallway was on again and Izzie was at the door with one of her hands on her hip as she eyed them with an amused smile on her face, her short hair spiking in pretty much every direction.

"I heard noises and came to see what was going on" She informed; her pyjama was green with some super-hero on it; Jake couldn't tell which one it was because she stood against the light.

"Jake was sad so we decided to sleep together to help him not feel so lonely!" The girl using him as a pillow said with her eyes closed.

"Can I joy in?" The other twin, already half asleep tug more at his pillow; he pushed her slightly and she ended up resting her head on his arm instead. The girl that was still awake rolled over creating a gap between them.

"Hop in" Izzie smiled widely and jumped to the bed on her own, special way; he noticed she was really small compared to them, even though she was only a year younger. Izzie was definitely a shorty, but he loved how energetic she was.

She stood on the gap between him and the girl on his right, spreading herself with her belly down, one of her legs spraying across his lap as she used his shoulder as pillow, the twin behind the girl, nuzzled her nose on the girls back, her arm thrown across her side, touching Collin slightly.

It didn't take much until they heard steps approaching the room in the dark; Jake didn't even turn the lights on.

"What yall doing?"

"Comforting Jake." His sister replied, the twin next to her mumbled something that was beyond comprehension, the other one was deeply asleep.

"Oh, okay" He brushed his neck in the dark; even Collin had heard disappointment on his voice. "Just hop in you silly monkey!" His sister said, also getting the hint on her brother's tone.

"Can I?" He asked to no one in particular.

"Yeah, just be fast and lay on your sister's side so you don't wake Autumn up!" Collin barked taking a chance on guessing which one was the twin sleeping next to him.

"This side is already full and I am Autumn!" The girl next to Izzie said. "Emily is the one that's asleep!"

"Whatever! Jake, don't you wake Emily up!"

"I can't believe you! Twelve years and you still can't tell us apart!" The last part of her sentence confirmed it was Autumn since her accent was starting to sound slightly British; that happened every time she got genuinely mad, sometimes she even switched languages without noticing it. That was something her sister couldn't do; Emily's accent was always the same, no matter how ugly the situation was. He smirked.

"Shut up! Your own father forbade you to wear the identical clothes during the day so you won't play with his mind and now the fault's on me?" He heard her sigh in the dark.

"Good night, Collin!" and he knew the discussion was over.

Collin was the first to wake up in the next morning; Jake had his arms locked around Emily and was wearing the pillow she never occupied, his legs spooning hers. Emily was still using his, now numb, arm as her pillow, her hand still on his belly, her legs slightly flexed, parallel to his.

Izzie had moved during the night and her head was resting on Autmun's belly, her legs spread across everyone else's; one of her hands on her own lap, the other one casually thrown over Autumn's face. That last girl was simply lying with her back down, one of her legs outside the bed; her arm extended, hand brushing his shoulder.

He smiled and tried to push Izzie off of him without waking her up which failed because she opened her eyes a bit startled, waking Autumn up that gave a half yell causing Emily to wake up and turn around, still half unconscious, pushing Jake off the bed.

"Whoa! Is that your mom naked? And why is your dad so old in that painting?" He asked when already on the floor.

They decided not to sleep together ever again, no matter how sad one of them was.

**On the next chapter the adults will come back and Collin will face his father with the truth.**


	8. Chapter 8

**This chapter shows how the kids relate with the outside world and with each other when they're not fighting or conning. **

**Also, the adults are in.**

The children never played along with others, ever since they were toddlers; that was their problem number on. Eliot, Sophie and him kept receiving calls from Kindergarten informing them the twins and Collin didn't mix with the class; like they were stuck inside they own world.

It got worse the day Collin bit a boy from their class that had tried to interact with the twins...

Eventually they grew out of it, but it was hard for a while, listening to the genuinely tone on the teachers' voices suggesting their children didn't have the social skills to cope in the real world...

It was even worse with Izzie and Jake because, if Collin and the twins were in the same class together, they were alone. Soon several worried phone calls would follow to inform the couple of young parents that Izzie and Jake didn't know how to relate with others, completely refusing to interact with other children even when coached to. Instead, they sat all the day in the corner playing with a specific set of toys. What worried the school the most was the fact they both seemed to connect better with objects than people...

Izzie never cried when a school mate of hers had to change town, permanently leaving class, and during the goodbye party she sat on a chair mounting the same puzzle over and over again as if nothing was happening. Jake started to disappear after his teacher took his toys away, trying to force him to interact with other children; they'd found him on the most weird places where you'd never to think to find a three-year old. He was always cradling his toys; the teacher also never figured how the boy managed to take them out of her office...

Years had passed by since then and all those phone calls were behind them now.

They were all in school now and according to the teachers they all fitted pretty well, of course the adults knew that was not accurate.

Sure, the twins had a huge group of friends, they were admired from both boys and girls due to their ability of triggering people into thinking they liked them; it was nothing but a con...

Collin was liked because he was pretty much the best football player the school had ever seen and always stood against bullies. Even Izzie had found ways to cope, she felt intimidated by most of the girls her age yet was completely comfortable around boys, they liked her first because she could play every electronic game you presented her with and second because even though she wasn't aware of it, the boys found her pretty and interesting.

Jake was liked because he was a goofy kind of boy, a happy clown that loved making everyone laugh, besides both of the twins pretended to have a crush on him when they were in school which caused him to be admired by all the other boys and wanted by the other girls (If, from all the boys, the twins had a crush on him, there must be something really special about him).

For all of those reasons the phone calls had stopped and their teachers all said the kids were socially mature, and completely capable of interacting, relating to and connecting with others.

They didn't connect, though. As soon as they passed the school gates all of those friends, school mates and admirers were forgotten to be remembered only after they returned to school the next day.

The children never went on play dates; they didn't go on sleep overs or camping, never went to other's birthday parties, despite all the invitations so the adults knew they were as stuck on their own world as they were in kindergarten.

They also understood why; in school they weren't themselves, they were lies and masks people wanted them to be since they true selves would scare them. They were the children of Sarah Jane and Tom Baker, Adam Sinclair, Alice With and Joseph Miller and why would they want to be that outside school too?

For all of those reasons Nathan wasn't surprised when Amy told him even though the kids had behaved well, always being polite, never disrespectful she had a feeling they didn't like her.

The mastermind smirked, paid her for the work and apologised for the entire inconvenient. He had predicted that to happen. As much as the kids respected Amy, because their parents liked her, they still saw her as an outsider, there for a possible threat to their little family.

They were on the living room playing their version of Monopoly and as always, they were fighting about it.

"No it's not your turn to play! You're in Jail, remember?" Emily said as she got up, arms on the air, trying to keep the dices way from Jake.

"No, I'm not. I escaped!" he insisted, also getting up to reach the dices, she pulled away from him.

"No you didn't, you aren't skilled enough to escape on your won!" She teased with a devilish smile across her face.

"Now I am offended! Besides I got outside help, Izzie hacked the security system!"

"Well, her hacking failed because the dices fell below six when she launched them!" He was now grabbing her, trying to force her to open her hands.

"Hey!" Izzie crossed her arms and pouted. "I don't care about those stupid dices, I hacked Pentagon and the NASA; I sure could hack your stupid prison!"

"Fine! Whatever! But Jake's still in prison because I had outside help too!" Emily had bad losing, there was no way she was stepping away from that fight.

"Seriously! Who?" Jake asked with a provoking grin.

"Collin, I hired him to knock you off before you could escape!"

"Sorry hon', I was robbing some hotel; didn't work for nobody 'till now!"

"Which Hotel were you robbing?" Autumn intervened.

"The one in Paris!" He stated simply.

"Hey! No way! I was robbing that Hotel first!" Autumn argued and just like that another discussion flared.

The adults were already inside the living widely grinning at the picture when the children saw them, the mood immediately changed; instead of complaining to their parents about their liar cheating cousins they all felt silent, cocky smiles and frowned borrows dying on their faces.

The blond, tall boy with dark eyes was the first to speak.

"I found about my parents." He said accusingly towards Eliot. "They are dead!"

"Okay children; let's get you some Ice-cream!" Sophie said softly rushing the other children out of the room.

"Can I have a chocolate flavoured one?" Izzie asked as she jumped her way down the stairs.

"No!" Both Parker and Hardison said firmly.

"Why not?" the girl asked even though she knew the answer.

"'Cause I love you too much to have you killed by chocolate ice-cream!" Hardison answered as he picked her up, carrying her on his shoulder like a potato bag just because he knew it made her giggle.

On the meantime, still inside the living room father and son were staring at each other.

**Did you like this chapter? Next one will be mostly Elliot and Collin talking. **

**Please review.**


	9. Chapter 9

**I am sorry it took me so long to update, I've been a bit blocked on this story but something amazing happened in my life and it's gone now! (It's screwed up to think my writing depends so much on my mood, I'd guess that's very unstable).**

**This one has a huge flashback about Collin, I hope you enojoy!**

_Flashback_**  
**

It was three in the morning when her phone starting buzzing on her nightstand, waking her up. At first, still caught on her sleep, she thought it was the baby monitor and lazily kicked Nate, those two little monsters had been fed two hours ago which meant, whatever it was, he could do it. Nate shifted and growled, but kept sleeping, completely unaware of his surroundings, the phone kept buzzing and her mind finally became clear enough to understand what was going on.

One hand got out of the ball of blankets and sheets she was wrapped in and started blinding fumbling on the nightstand until it reached the phone. She answered the phone without looking at the screen and sleepily said "Hello".

Nate woke up with his wife dressing a pair of jeans in the dark, almost tripping and falling as she searched for a blouse.

"What's going on?" He asked dozing from sleep.

"Eliot called, keep sleeping!" She said and left out the door, the mastermind immediately fell asleep; he was too tired to care.

As she approached the door she confirmed she was not losing her sanity due to sleep deprivation, there was in fact, a crying baby inside Eliot's house.

She knocked hard. "Eliot, are you in there?" There was always a chance she had driven to the wrong house, exhausted people did strange things. Eliot was the one that opened the door indeed, and there was a chubby baby crying in his arms.

He ushered her inside. "He's going to wake the entire neighbourhood if he continues crying like this!" He said as he rocked the baby, trying to hush him.

Sophie looked around, there was a huge bag on the floor of Eliot's living room, bright coloured stuff animals and baby clothes were coming out; the little human, whoever he was, was going to stay.

"Eliot, who is he?" She asked as she crouched on the floor, searching for something inside the bag.

"He's my son!" She froze for only a moment before she continued her search. That didn't surprise her that much, everyone knew Eliot slept around, she always assumed he took the proper precautions, however, mistakes happened.

"Who's the mother?"

"Alexandra Sanders" Eliot stated matter of factually and continued speaking with the baby with the softest, funniest voice the grifter had ever heard coming from his mouth. "Yeah, she's your mommy, big boy, and she loves you very much! Yes, she does!" In the meantime Sophie had gotten up not knowing what to think, wishing she was misconnecting the name with the face or otherwise Eliot was just being terribly dumb.

"Alexandra Saunders? Your army buddy from Arizona?" Eliot nodded as he started singing to the baby; even though his voice was fantastic nothing seemed to comfort the inconsolable baby. "Twinkle, twinkle little star... Yeah, you remember her? How I wonder what you are..."

"Yes, Eliot I do, but that baby can't possibly be your son!" Eliot stopped on his heels.

"You don't get you, do you Sophie? I didn't sleep with her, ever! That doesn't mean I am not his father!" She frowned at that sentence, completely confused. "Listen, she's broken, okay. She never had real support or love, not from her family, not ever and now this thug shows up on her life, gives her a wink and smile and she falls for him. There's no way she's going to leave him, not now. She got pregnant though, and she's no dumb, she knows that guy ain't gonna be a good father, hell ,she knows she can't be a good mother, not when you are as messed up as she is. So, instead of living him in the foster system, she decided to give her baby to the best person she knows." He paused for a moment, rocking the baby on his arms again, whispering soft words to him, and showing Sophie a side she hadn't seen ever, not even around the twins. "Imagine how terrible your life is when the best person you know it's me!" The brunette smirked at that, Eliot was still convinced he was a bed man. "So yeah, I am the kid's father!" He finally said and she nodded, the fact the hitter was willing to jump into that without question was enough proof he was going to be a great father.

"So, why did you call me here?" She asked her voice soft.

"He doesn't stop crying, I don't know what to do!" Sophie crouched on the floor again, returning to search something in the bag until she emptied it. When she got up she started taking her bra, without taking her blouse, which still made Eliot turn away.

"Whoa, Soph! What are you doing?"

"The baby's hungry, there's no bottle inside this bag. Probably because she never needed one... I'm going to feed the baby!" He took some steps back.

"What? No! That's crazy!" Her hands went to rest on her hips as she cocked an eyebrow at him.

"So, you're going to let your son starve just because you're a chaste?"

"No, I am sure there's something else we can. And I am not a chaste!"

"Yeah, good luck finding an open store that sells baby bottles and baby milk at half past three in the morning!" Eliot sighed.

"What about your home, don't you some bottles for the girls?" Sophie laughed condescending at him.

"Eliot, they are three months old and we are still having problems with them getting used to it, how do you think that will work with a baby that is... how old?"

"Three days... Fine! Do as you wish!" He handed her the baby, being sure he'd regret that forever and turned to the wall.

"I don't know what your problem is, Eliot. It's just a hungry baby, there's not wrong with this." He growled.

"Whatever, but first thing tomorrow morning I am buying a bottle; can't believe Alexandra forgot that!"

When the baby was finally full and Eliot turned around to see him happily resting on Sophie arms he knew he could do it, with the help of his family, he could do it.

"Want to carry him?" She asked and he nodded. The baby boy started crying the moment he went to Eliot' arms.

"What's going on?" Eliot asked in frustration. "Why doesn't he like me?" Sophie approached them and started rubbing the baby's belly.

"He misses his mum, that's going to take a while..."

"But he was calm with you, maybe he just knows I am no good..." He was slightly pouting; Sophie never thought a man like Eliot would ever do that in his life time.

"You took this baby in your life and arms without a second thought, Eliot, that is very honourable so don't say you are no good! The thing is, babies: they are very sensible to the people around him. They feel how you feel. If you are agitated the baby will get that and he will be agitated too, you have to calm yourself first in order for the baby to calm down..." Eliot smirked and starting rocking the baby, sustaining his little head with one hand, holding him against his chest.

"The twins don't seem very calm to me..." She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well, they are Nathan Ford's daughters and we all know he's not the most serene person in the world." He smiled back, that was truth.

After a few minutes, crying became mumbling and mumbling became silence as the little boy fell asleep on his father's arms.

"What's his name?" Sophie asked realizing for the first time she did not know how the baby was called.

"Collin, his name is Collin..." Eliot whispered proudly, his eyes locked on the sleeping boy.

"Collin..." Sophie tried out with a smile. "Welcome to the family..."

* * *

Eliot sat on the couch next to Collin without knowing what to say. Hell, what were you supposed to say? That was the conversation he had tried to avoid his entire fatherhood yet, it was the one he knew he would have to face sooner or later. He felt bad Collin had found out about their parents that way, he had wanted to shield the child from everything yet those things were backfiring and there was nothing he could do about it.

"I am sorry!" was the only thing that escaped his lips as his son stared at him with a broken heart. He meant it, he really was sorry.

"You should have helped her!" the boy suddenly shouted getting up from his seat, tears of anger flooding his eyes.

"Collin..." Eliot tried to intervene, it was not that simple.

"You should!" He yelled again, hands curled into fists, knuckles getting white as his face turned red.

"I tried! I tried, but I couldn't..."

"Why not? Isn't that what you do? Don't you help people that have no one else to go to?"

"It's not that simple, Collin, she didn't want help!" The boy stopped starting to sob as tears run across his face.

"You should have searched for her! Izzie found her, how come you didn't? You just gave up on her!" He was so angry, so wronged, so sad... It broke Eliot's heart, the person he loved the most, the one he'd do everything to protect being harmed like that...

"I kept tabs on her, but I lost her after she left the state of Arizona, there was nothing leading me to her, she didn't have a cellphone, she didn't have a credit card or a bank account, there was no paper trail... Every time I got nearly close to her she switched identities and after a while I had no clue at all so I thought… I thought she'd come for me when she was ready, the way she always did..." The boy shook his head, not caring to clean his tears away.

"You should have tried harder!"

"She didn't want to be found!" Eliot snapped. "Okay, your mother was like that, you couldn't ever find her unless she wanted to... I mean, the childhood she had, what we saw in the army... Giving us a purple heart was their way of cleaning their hands, it's easier to call us heroes then to call us murderers... She learnt how to hide to survive; that was the thing your mother was great at. I couldn't have ever found her unless she wanted to, and she didn't want to..." Eliot got quite as his son took his words in, the room silent except for Collin's uncontrollable sobbing.

"Come here, son." Eliot said as he got up from his place to hold the boy, Collin started waking backwards, trying to push away from his dad, but ended up tripping on the coffee table, over the Monopoly game. Eliot took the chance to seat on the table next to him, pulling to his chest as the boy fought him with all his anger.

"It's okay, son, it's okay!" Eliot said because him being mad was the only right thing on that situation.

"She died. She died alone..." The boy yelped as he collapsed on his dad's arms.

"I am sorry. I wish there was something I could do..." The hitter responded as he rubbed the boy's back with his right hand, holding him with his left arm.

"Did she love me?" Collin asked after composing himself, he was still in Eliot's arms.

"Very much, she couldn't have loved you more!" Eliot said honestly. "It took her a lot of heart to live you like that..." Collin lifted his blond head to look at his father.

"Do you think she'd come for me one day?" Eliot faced dark eyes with his own blue.

"I am sure she would."

"Can we see her? Izzie says she was taken to her city and buried there..."

"'Corse we can, kiddo! We can also see your father if you want to..." Collin shook his head, nuzzling on the curve of Eliot's neck again.

"My father is already here..." and Eliot smiled.

**Did you like it? I will try not to leave you hanging anymore so if you're still interested on the story, review and I will post the next chapter as fast as possible! : )**


	10. Chapter 10

**This one is a little family dinner that shows a crazier side to Hardison and Parker. I hope you like it, next chapter will be the closing of Collin's story and then the "problems" can start! **

They all sit in silence around the round mahogany table that belongs to the Ford's dining room eyeing each other. Well, almost all of them, because Colin is staring at his empty plate, Eliot is staring at Collin, and Jake is eating like he starved for two weeks.

"So," Nate starts as he plays with the rice on his plate. "How did you pull this off?" He doesn't ask anyone in particular yet everyone knows the question is directed to the twins.

Emily shrugs and takes a bite of rice and beef before answering. "Izzie hacked uncle Alec's computer to get most of the information and searched the rest using his tabs..."

"You hacked into my computer?!" Hardison yells practically jumping out of his chair.

"The twins made her do it! They conned her!" Jake accuses, trying to protect his sister, flinching as Emily kicks him under the table.

"You conned her?" and Nate's tone is changed, it's not so causal anymore, it sounds... dangerous.

"Well, we had to. To help Collin..." Autumn responds as she serves some more salad on her plate.

"You two are grounded." Nate states simply causing the other four adults to stare at him.

"Excuse me?" Sophia has an eyebrow cocked at him, her fork on her hand.

"What? You don't con your own team; they should know that." Eliot chuckles.

"Come one, man. Their mother conned us, putting the entire team in jeopardy just to get her hands on the freakin' David!" Sophie sighs.

"You won't ever let that go, will you?" Eliot shakes his head, a playful look in his eyes.

"And their dad. You. Hypnotized. Me." Hardison says, pointing at Nate with his fork.

"You did." Parker adds. "That was evil..." and she passes the tray of beef to Jake who's repeating for the second time.

"You can't punish them for being the apple that didn't feel far from the tree." Eliot says and Sophie nods in agreement.

"Yeah, but the thing is: I taught them to be better than us, not like us. I don't want them to do the mistakes we made..."

"So, hypnotizing me was a mistake?" Hardison teases, causing Nate to grunt.. Parker slaps Izzie's hand away from the chocolate milkshake Collin was drinking.

"But moooom..."

"No!" She says firmly and Izzie crosses her arms in front of her chest and pouts.

"Don't make that face young lady; you know I don't do this because I want to!" Izzie pouts more as she mumbles something that sound like "It's not fair..."

"Don't worry, beautiful, tomorrow I'll teach how to rescue deleted files from the C.I.A, okay?" She smiles as Hardison leans to kiss her cheek, Parker rolls her eyes, that girl has him wrapped around her finger.

"Coming back to the business that matters, Nate, I won't let you punish the girls for this; fine, they did a wrong thing; however, they had the best intentions" Sophie sips some of her wine and Autumn and Emily both smile, Nate can never win against Sophie.

"Doing wrong deeds for the right reasons doesn't make it right!" He starts trying to bring Hardison and Parker to reason with him. "What would you do if Jake went and stole the National bank?" Parker takes a bit of rice before responding.

"Hum... Does he get caught?" She asks waving her for in the air. Nate frowns at her and Eliot rolls on his eyes on an expression that says: "There's something wrong with you!".

"He doesn't." Nathan finally says, just because it's easier that way.

"How much does he steal?" She asks as Hardison stares at her blankly.

"I don't know... I couple millions..." Parker frowns and opens her mouth to speak, but the mastermind cuts her off. "The details don't matter; just tell me what you would do!"

"I'd ground him!" "I'd by him ice-cream!" Hardison and Parker say at the same time.

The room falls silent as the couple stares at one another. Sophie and Nathan disagreeing and arguing is an everyday occurrence, there's even bets on in how many different languages Sophie cusses; Parker and Hardison are a complete different thing though. It happens very rarely; when it does, it gets explosive. Literally.

"Why would you ground him? He only stole a couple million, but he's just a kid, you should teach him how to do better not ground him!" Hardison starts to stutter.

"Baby, it's not... It's not that!"

"What is it then? Aren't you going to support him on his life choices? Or you thinks our son being a thief is a bad thing?" She's suddenly standing in the middle of the kitchen with her hands on her hips, to close to the knives if you ask Eliot. Hardison gets up too.

"Baby, it's not that..." She cuts him of again. "Damn it, woman, will you let me talk?" He spats on a very unusual way, she squints his eyes at him, looks away for a moment. "You have two minutes Alec Hardison, after that you better run!" Eliot gets up just in case, Sophie does too, telling the children to walk away if things escalate, Nate just watches.

"Of course, I will support him and if he wants to be a thief, I am no one to judge, hell, I fell for the greatest thief of the world... I'd ground him because him stealing from such a big bank so young it's very reckless and dangerous, and even dumb. It would scare the crap out of me to know he'd put himself in such danger but, hell yeah, I'd be proud of him! I'd even buy him ice-cream after that!" and he smiles on that way that always makes Parker melt, in fact, that smile saved his life once. Parker smiles too, happy with his answer.

"That sounds fine! But don't ever talk to me like that again! Do you hear me?"

"Yes ma'am!" His gentle smile is still there. "Now, let's finish our dinner." Sophie calls the children to the table and Eliot sits down relaxing.

"So... are we grounded or not?" Emily asks warily.

"No," Nate says giving in to Sophie and pretty much everyone else. "But you have to apology to your cousin." Autumn pouts a little.

"That's unfair. Mum never apologises!"

"Well, you are not me are you dear? Now, do as your father says, come on!" and she glares in Izzies direction, who is making gooey eyes to the milkshake Collin is drinking.

"You also never say please and dad doesn't have a problem with that!" Emily strikes as she takes a bite of her almost cold food.

"Oh, she says please alright, you just don't hear it!" Nathan answers harshly causing Sophie to blush and hit him with her elbow. Eliot just grunts, "Seriously? I did not need to know that. Seriously!"

"To know what?" The twins both ask at the same time.

"Nothing, just say you're sorry!" A much blushed Sophie commands starting to lose patience.

"I am sorry, Izzie!" The twins say at the same time. "We never meant to hurt you, we were just trying to help Collin..." Izzie smiles, glowing eyes from behind her glasses, because she knows, even though the twins wouldn't say those words by their own choice, they really are sorry.

"No problem, I was being a sissy anyways..." She turns to Hardison. "What about me? Am I grounded?" He raises one eyebrow at her.

"Why would be grounded, sweetie?" Parker looks at her too, not understanding what she's talking about.

"I... I hacked into your computer, invaded your privacy..." Hardison laughs.

"One thing, I learned a long time ago, there's really no privacy anymore. Nahh, darling, I'm proud If you; 'did what you had to do to help ya cousin! In fact, I'ma buy you some Ice-cream!"

"Can it be a chocolate one?"

"No!" Everyone says at the same time.

**Did you like it?**

**And I know I had promised to update quickly but I moved away from home to study and things were a bit crazy for a while. Anyway, review, and I will do my best to keep you happy! **


	11. Chapter 11

**I told you, I'd update soon.**

Izzie felt the couch sink by her side as Collin took the space next to her.

"Want some?" He asked as he extended her a huge bowl of popcorn.

"Are those the salty or the sugary ones?" She asked as she looked at the bowl suspiciously.

"The salty ones."

"Ohhh, those are my all-time favourite!" and she took a handful of them.

"I know." Collin added simply. "So, what are we watching."

"A very interesting show called: Emily jumping at Jake's throat." The redheaded answered with a pleased smirk. Collin smiled back as he too shoved a bunch of popcorn in his mouth.

"Can I join you?" Autumn asked from behind, stealing popcorn from Collin's bowl.

"Yeah" The boy said sliding to the side, making room for the brunette. "But why aren't you there with your sister?" He asked staring into her eyes, he knew Autumn better than that, she wasn't going to let Jake walk away from that.

"I might have programed him to carry my bag pack to school tomorrow." She paused watching the others' reaction. "And I might do that for the rest of the week..."

Izzie chuckled and Collin tried to high-fived her.

"I don't do high-fives!" she said flipping her hair behind her shoulder.

"I don't do high-fives!" Izzie repeated with a strange, thin voice and shaking her head and torso awkwardly. Collin choked on his popcorn and winked at her as Autumn squinted her eyes and turned her face way on a snobby gesture..

"You don't do that!" Emily shouted. "You don't snitch on your own team!"

"Hey! You don't get to throw that on me; you were the one conning your team!" Jake spat accusingly as he dodge a UFO she had thrown in his direction.

"You stupid bastard; don't you get it? I did what I did to help Collin!"

"Well, I did it to help my sister!" He said as he run behind the table so she wouldn't hit him.

"And threw me and my sister into the wolves?" She grabbed another object.

"Well, what were you doing when you said to your father that Izzie had hacked into my father's computer?"

"I knew he wasn't going to be mad; I am not stupid, but you..." She pointed at him, squinting his eyes the same way Autumn had done a few minutes before.

"Come on, what's the worst thing he was gonna do? Forbid you to eat dessert for two weeks? 'Cause I could steal it for you..." She pulled at her hair, covering her face with her forearms.

"Don't you get it? This is not about us avoiding consequences, it's about loyalty!" He laughed.

"Really, you gonna lecture me on loyalty? Giving what you did and the parents that you have I don't think you can play that part!" Collin muttered "Dam it, Jake!" and Autumn gasped and got almost overthrowing Collin's bowl of popcorn on the floor.

"Don't you talk about my parents, Jake Parker Hardison! Because you have no right to do so!" She spat on a perfect Brittish accent as she walked towards him.

Izzie just shoved a couple more pop-corns into her mouth. "That was a dumb move..."

"Very dumb." Collin agreed. "Your brother just doesn't know when to shut up."

"Okay," The boy said, retracting. "Maybe that was a bit over the top, but still, I snitched to save my sister, how's that not loyal?"

Autumn sighed, brushing her hands through her hair.

"Collin do you know what would have happened if our parents were snitches?"

"They'd all be dead!" Emily added coldly.

"If when my mother conned the team my dad had gone to You Know Who..."

"How I ate that guy!" Collin affirmed as he came back from the fridge with a bottle of cola.

"He's like evil Nate!" Izzie agreed, munching on her popcorn.

"... Saying our mother had conned him to do it, if he had chosen the easy way, your parents would have been arrested along with our mother..."

"My mom wouldn't be in jail for long..." Jake argued with a pout, someone saying his mother could be kept in prison was an offense.

"Not the point!" Autumn cut, still mad at him for his words.

"And Uncle Eliot would be probably sentenced to death penalty. But he didn't do it."

"Also, when Moreau got free and abducted Uncle Eliot to attract the rest of the team he never told him where they were, if he had done that he would have gotten them all killed."

"Conning your own team is bad ,but it can be fixed, snitching doesn't." Autumn concluded.

"And if we want to be a team we can't break those rules!" Emily finished. The boy sighed.

"No more snitching, I promise!" The twins smiled shyly. "Are we good now?" They both nodded yet the mood felt tense for the rest of the night.

He heard steps behind him and turned around. One of the twins was standing behind him in her pyjama and wild hair falling loose.

"I went to your room, but you weren't there." She stated simply as she walked towards him, her hair tangling with the wind, reminding him of a witch, a good kind of witch.

"Yeah, I like to come here before I go to sleep. It's peaceful. Which one are you by the way?"

"Emily." She embraced herself, trembling from the cold wind, Jake took his black furry-on-the-inside Jacket and placed it on her back.

"That's good." He says after a few seconds of silence staring to the roof of the building in front of them, calculating a free-fall.

"Would it be bad if it were my sister?" She asked with a smile.

"You both are wicked and scary and you are genius, but your sister, she manipulates me. Remember the one time I hid a frog on her bed?" Her smile got bigger as she reminisced.

"Brazil, four years ago."

"She manipulated me into wearing a dress!" Emily laughed, hiding it with her hands.

"It's not funny!"

"Of course it is!"

" So...hu... Why are you here?"

"I wanted to know: do you really think my family is not loyal?" It was his turn to laugh.

"What did your sister say about that?" He asked because he was aware Autumn was so much better at reading people than Emily.

"That you didn't mean it and I was being silly for thinking so." He turned to her.

"She's right, Em. I was being mean because I was mad, that's all. Your father went to jail to save the rest of the team and your mother come back when she didn't have to and stayed by the teams side supporting them and you, you took the blame when I broke your father's ship."

She smiled softly, blue eyes that remind him of the sky.

"Thank you for that..." She whispered softly since she was as bad at showing gratitude as she was at apologising or saying please.

They both went inside to their rooms and fell asleep. The next morning everything was just like before, except, for some strange reason Jake carried Autumn's bag pack on their way to school.

**So, on this chapter I tried to capture some of the team member's features on their kids. Did I do it right? **

**A/N: This part of the history served to show the children's context and their origins; now that it's done it will be about how they cope with the world on their "Teamlike" manners so there will be some time loops. I'll tell you their age's, don't worry. **

**Please review, it makes me happy and keeps me motivated! : )**


	12. Chapter 12

Collin's first "real" fight

**Emily and Autumn – 8**

**Collin – 8**

**Izzie – 7**

**Jake - 6**

They never meant for the kids to be like them, well, almost. Parker thought them all simple pickpocket skills and how to pick locks because those could always be handy and Sophie thought them the basics of lying since they could not afford to have the children spilling out their "real" names at school or saying their parents repeatedly broke the law for a living, but aside that they never meant for the children to actually become so similar to them. They did.

At the age of eleven months Izzie didn't speak a word to save her life yet she knew how to work with the team's cellphones, and Jake started stealing toys from other kids in kindergarten hiding in the vents if he got caught. Hardison had to give him an electronic bracelet because he kept disappearing whenever they went outside.

At the age of five Autumn spoke three languages fluently and Emily played chess on master level already.

And, then, there was Collin.

Collin could be very possessive over the three girls if some outsider tried to approach them and he was an athlete, he defended Jake in school and Eliot was sure he could defend himself if things ever got ugly but the boy never actually had to fight.

He was really calm; sometimes it would last for weeks and along the way they all had to hear the complaints about disappearing objects, inconveniently locked bathroom doors, cruel manipulations and evil plans of revenge.

When Izzie joined in it was far worst for the girl knew how to hack in house's security system and she could not only lock the electric door but also set all kinds of alarms off. Nate and Sophie were sure someday there would be frag grenades being thrown across the rooms, for now, they could just ground the kids before things got too bad. They all ended up grounded, except for Collin who knew better than to get in those fights.

So, when one day, "Adam Sinclair" received a call from the school director informing that his eight year old son had gotten into a fight with an older boy and was currently at the Hospital. Eliot panicked and drove the Hospital exceeding the speed limit by way too much preying that his boy was fine and cursing himself for not have taught him how to fight.

He found his son chilling on a chair, pressing a pack of ice over his right shoulder and with a nasty cut on his lip. The other, older, boy had a black eye, three broken fingers as well as his nose and an open wrist.

The director called Eliot aside.

"Listen, Mr. Sinclair, Collin's teacher tell us he's a good boy and fact is he never caused us problems before and that other kid, well, he's always running into trouble."

"Does this mean you won't punish my son?" Eliot asked feeling relieved.

"I don't want to, but you see, he won't tell us the reason he got into the fight and other students told us he started it so, if you don't get him to speak we will have to get him suspended." Eliot sighed pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I'll see what I can do."

Things got worse when the parents of the other kids arrived and told him to "Put his boy on a leach!"

"Excuse me?" Eliot asked.

"He's an animal! Look what he did to our little angel!" The mother said kissing her boy's head as the annoying child stupidly smiled at them. Collin growled.

"Your little angel? Asked him why I kicked his ass! You cunt!"

"Collin!" Eliot barked, where the hell had he learnt that word?

"What? He is!" and he turned to the other kid. "It ain't so funny when ya' messin' with a boy ain't it?" and he smirked in both disgust and pride.

Collin was dismissed from the Hospital five minutes later and Eliot agreed with the director he'd call as soon as he got to the bottom of it.

"So..." Eliot asked uncomfortable, already on the car. "Was it over a girl?"

"Kind of..." Collin responded as he stared out the window.

"Do you like her?" Eliot asked trying to understand if that all mess was over some crush. Collin turned around to stare at, running a hand through his short blond hair.

"Does it matter? You don't mess with girls. You just don't!" Eliot smirked, it was shame the boy had gotten in so many problems, but at the same time, he was proud of him. Eliot couldn't judge Collin because he would have done exactly the same thing.

"It doesn't. The next time though, fight him outside school so you won't get into trouble." The boy smirked slightly at his dad, glad he had found some understanding.

Both, children and adults were waiting for them in their living room when they got home.

"They told us what had happened." Sophie informed casually as if there weren't a bunch of people spread across his living room and eating his food, he now knew how Nathan felt all the time.

"We were worried about you!" The twins said at the same time on that way that always crept everyone else out.

"Why were you worried about him? He kicked ass!" Jake said and proceeded to mimic some Karate moves on the carpet. Parker tousled his hair.

"You are adorable!" She said with a grin that was so typically Parker's.

"No, mum, I ain't adorable. I am scary!" He said with a pout. She smiled more.

"Of course you are!" She responded tousling him again.

Meanwhile Collin had walked to Izzie and was now in front of her, she was staring at the floor, her feet crossed at tip of her shoes as she sat on the kitchen table. Why didn't those kids stay on normal places, like chairs?

The blond boy took something out of his pocket and handed it to her.

"Here, he won't take it from you again." He said simply and Eliot saw it was her Gameboy.

"Wait, wait. She was the girl that stupid kid was messing with?" Eliot and Hardison both asked at the same time.

"He kept stealing the Gameboy from her." Emily said and he knew who she was because her hair was caught in a messy ponytail as Autumn's was carefully braided.

"I lifted it from him the first ten times, but he kept stilling it!" Jake added.

"And this morning when she tried to retrieve it from him he said something very nasty to her."

"Very nasty!" Jake said crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Sweetie, what did he say to you?" Parker said reaching for her girl. Izzie kept quiet, saying nothing. Collin was the one lifting her chin so they'd be eye to eye.

"Hey, don't tell me you believed him. Not for a second. You're beautiful!" The room went silent as the adults stared at the two children in both shock and admiration. Collin continued. "He's ten, what does he know about girls anyway?" She bit her lip.

"You're eight, what do you know about girls?" He chuckled.

"Well, for starters I live with not one, but five very beautiful women and have you seen his mother? That woman looks like a pig in clothes!" Izzie snorted and swung forward on the table to hug him hard.

"My hero!" She said into his year just because she knew Collin was into superheroes.

Hardison got up from his chair.

"Callin' ma daughter ugly! Eliot, I am glad your kid did this because if didn't I would have to whoop his ass!"

Collin almost get suspended since he refused that Izzie came forward saying he didn't the school to think she was a cry-baby so the twins pretended that Collin was defending them because the boy was harassing them.

Later that week, on the bully's house, one thousand porno magazines were delivered and all their computers and cellphones mysteriously stopped working.

**On the next one Jake breaks into the house vault and discovers a terrifying piece of paper. What is it?**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: I am not giving you the kids ages on this one because they were irrelevant, you can't picture them with whatever age you want. **

When Jake and Izzie walked inside they both liked look they had seen ghosts and God knew ghosts weren't to scare that pair. Emily knocked the black king on her chess game and crossed her legs leaning against the chair as she asked "What?".

"Is You Know Who in town again?" Autumn asked closing her book as Collin got up from the couch.

"If so, can I punch him?" and he cracked his knuckles.

"Only in the face." The twins responded calmly.

"Now, what is it?" Autumn demanded.

"You're making me nervous." Emily added; she hated cliff hangers.

"I hacked the security system on your dad's office." Izzie said. "With my phone."

"So I could break into that badass vault he hides on the fake wall."

"Wait, there's a fake wall?" Collin asked and the four nodded. "Was I the only one that didn't know that?" They nodded again.

"And I found this. It's written in lawyer." Jake said shaking the paper in front of them.

"And we don't speak or read lawyer." Izzie added. "But it speaks of death and has a lot of names on it..."

"It's creepy as hell!" Jake cut gesturing widely with his hands.

"Do you think it can be a hit list?" Collin asked with a smirk, the idea of Nathan Ford having a secret hit list amused him.

"I don't know. but I an't messin' with yar dad fo' so'. He' creepy!" Jake retorted at the twins that both smirked.

"Let me see that." Autumn asked and Izzie handed her the paper. The brunette drank a sip of orange soda that she spit out when she got to the end, chocking.

"Whoa! Are ya alright?" Collina asked as he patted her back to help her and Emily practically ripped the paper out of her hands.

"Holly Mother of God!" She yelped with wide eyes.

"Creepy, right?" Jake said.

"What is it?" Collin asked, getting impatient.

"They're trading us like we're pieces of meat!" Autumn announced with an unmistakable British accent that warned the blond boy things were serious.

"What. Is. It?" He asked for the second time.

"It's a legal document." Emily responded vaguely and he knew her mind was already far away, creating some kind of wicked plan.

"So... What's so scary about it?" Collin did not understand, they all had grown with the idea that legal contracts were not to be taken serious since they could easily be manipulated to be used as guns against the weak and vulnerable.

"If our parents die your father is, by law, our legal guardian." Autumun clarified. "If your father dies, our parents are your legal guardians."

"Wait, ain't my parents the legal guardians of anyone?" Jake intervened slightly offended, his hands playing with a locket and a set of picks.

"If our parents die along with his father." Emily said pointing at Collin. "Your parents are the legal guardians of the three of us.

"And if your parents die, my parents are your legal guardians." Autumn added.

"I am guessing that if your parents die" Collin started looking at the twins. "and their parents die" he continued referring to Hardison and Parker. "My father will be the legal guardian of the four of you."

"Exactly!" The twins said at the same time.

"Well, the fact they're assuming all of these deaths can happen is creepy, butI still don't see what makes it so scary." He shrugged, even though the idea of losing their parents could scar anyone he didn't understand why they'd suffer ahead of time.

"It's not creepy; it's clever." Emily argued.

"They're thieves; thieves have accidents." Izzie concluded.

"The scary part is not that one." Autumn sipped her glass of orange soda again, her face still red.

"It' says here." And Emily paused, creating suspense.

"What, Em? What does it say?" Collin shouted.

"If our parents all die Maggie is our nominated legal guardian." Emily announced making Collin frown, he was feeling dumb because he still did not get what so scary about it.

"What's wrong with that? Maggie's cool."

"She's adorable!" Izzie stated on a squeaky voice. "And she smells great!" Four pairs of eyes started at her for a split of second; then they remembered the redheaded couldn't have more Parker in her if she was her biological daughter.

"And, she was your big brother's mother." Collin affirmed. "What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing! We love Maggie!" Autumn retorted, her face was back to normal.

"But" and Collin hated the intonation on that but "if for any reason, Maggie can't do it."

"Like a she's-already-dead reason." Jake concluded with an unbelievably misplaced jollity tone on that sentence as he picked the locket for the seventh time in a row.

"Then, our legal guardian is supposed to be..." and Emily shut up not finishing the sentence.

"You Know Who..." Izzie whispered hugging herself, her body shaken by shivers at the very own pronunciation of the name. Collins eyes widened.

"Oh no! Hell no!" He shouted in fury. "There's no way Sterling's gonna be our legal guardian!"

"Don't say that name!" Izzie howled as if that very name could hurt her.

"No way!" Collin shouted again.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it." Autumn dropped matter of factually.

"It's not like when we can prevent your dad from being shot. Seriously the man gets shot like once a week! How does he manage that?" Jake throw the locket on the box, he was bored with it. Autumn shrugged.

"He's a mess up; just like Em over here!" Autumn said teasingly, but her sister was too far to reach on her words, her eyes locked on the wall as she thought of a plan to get them out of the mess their parents had put them in.

They all knew she got it the second her lips curled into an, almost devilish, smile.

"Izzie, could you hack something for me?"

And that was the week Maggie Collins received a letter from one of the best Hospitals in LA saying she was to do a, full paid, complete, health check-up.

**So what do you think about my idea of Sterling being the Bogeyman slash Voldemort to the kids? And what do you think about the adults nominating him as legal guardian, is it believable or too over the top?**

**Next chapter: Why can't Em win Nathan at chess, what is she doing wrong?**


	14. Chapter 14

**Thank you so much to Orisoun who betad this!  
**

**This chapter is longer than usual because it has three different episodes on it; they all twirl around Autumn, so I hope you like it.**

At the Park

**Autumn and Emily: 3 years old**

**Izzie: 2 years old.**

**Jake: 1 year old.**

"People see what they want to see" Autumn learned that the day she went to the park with her mother, Emily, Parker, Izzie and Jake.

"Ohh, aren't they so cute?" Said a woman with a plastic smile, while looking at the twins. Sophie smiled and thanked politely, Parker arched her eyebrow and kept feeding Jake.

"And this little one has her mother's smile!" The woman continued, speaking about Izzie and Parker. The thief's eyebrow arched again. "And the little boy... Where is he from? Haiti?"

Sophie had to prevent Parker from stealing everything the woman had on her.

Christmas 

**Autumn and Emily: 5 years old**

**Collin: 5 years old**

**Izzie: 4 years old**

**Jake: 3 years old**

It was Christmas morning and they were all playing with their presents.

Parker was on a corner with Jake sitting on her lap, teaching him how to pick the lock she had given him; Hardison was playing a game with Izzie on her new console. Collin was playing with his plastic sword, and Eliot was running around him, teaching him "some cool tricks"; Sophie was watching Emily attempting to decipher her Rubik cube. Autumn had received a book called "French for Children!" because she'd shown interest in learning new languages; yet the book was sitting, forgotten, at her side. She was staring at Nate.

The man was sitting on the couch, far away from them, a teacup (he hadn't had a drink since he found out Sophie was pregnant) resting on his hands, eyes staring at the Christmas tree, his face shadowy and sad.

"Daddy!" and he snapped from the world he was lost in, his lovely daughter was calling him, her lips bent on a pout. "What's wrong?" and she got up and walked to him, kneeling on the floor with her hands on his knees. "Didn't you like the present momma got you?" He looked at the watch Sophie had given him; it was similar to one she'd stolen from him once, might even be the same; he was not sure.

"No honey, the present is just fine!" he pulled her by her armpits so she sat on his lap.

She hugged him, her hands around his neck and her face on the curve between his neck and shoulder.

"But you seem so sad!" and now, she seemed sad too. He felt a knot building on his throat, Sophie and all the adults were staring at him.

"Well, darling I am sad, but I am also very happy!" he said softly, stroking her long dark hair. She pushed away slightly, staring at him with such a sad expression that i broke his heart.

"But I want you not to be sad!" Emily, who had realized what was happening, moved too, and she was now climbing onto his lap. He pulled her closer, so she'd sit on one of his legs and Autumn on the other.

"Why are you sad, daddy?" Autumn persisted and two pairs of blue eyes stared at his, lips pouting.

He explained it to them. Very softly, he told them he'd had a son before them, a long time ago, when he and mommy weren't married. He told them that the boy was their brother and he had gotten very sick and had gone to heaven.

Emily said she was sorry and that she would like to have met her brother, kissed his cheek tenderly and squeezed his hand; after that, she climbed off of him and got back to the mind challenging Rubik. Autumn didn't move; she hugged Nate tighter saying nothing, her face against his chest as she listened to his heartbeat. He rubbed her back and kept kissing her head with moist eyes.

"I will never die, daddy, I promise!" she whispered after a while, her arms still around his neck. He was shocked since he had not once mentioned the word death; he'd thought it might be a complicated word for such small children.

When he woke up the next morning he had a drawing on his nightstand. There was a house, flowers and blue sky with a big yellow sun on it. There were people, five stick figures, two taller than the others, one of which had an upside down triangle for a skirt and long brown hair; Mum and Dad were the words written under those figures. Next to them there were two smaller stick figures, similar to the one that represented Sophie; the words Me and Em were written under it.

There was one more stick figure around the same size as the last two. That one though, wasn't touching the soil; it was hovering over the "Dad" person and it had wings. Under it, the name "Sam" was written. Nathan spent the rest of his morning crying once composed, he got up, went to his children's room, woke Autumn up and hugged her as tight as he could, kissing her on the forehead after.

"Thank you for the best Christmas present ever!" he said and kissed her again.

Playing Chess 

**Autumn, Emily and Collin: 15 years old**

**Izzie: 14 years old**

**Jake: 13 years old**

Autumn watched people; it's what she did, and after years of watching Emily lose against Nate in chess, she knew what her sister was doing wrong. Emily spent years watching her father play so one day she could defeat him. She was watching the wrong person.

Autumn, on the other hand, watched her father's opponents.

Parker didn't exactly play; she merely stole pieces from the board, both black and white, until she got bored. Hardison only played once and quit in the middle. Eliot was a good match; he always ended up losing though. And, finally, there was Sophie.

Sophie dressed her shortest dress and wore a necklace that drew attention to her cleavage. She wore high heels and took them off in the middle of the game; afterwards, she would start brushing one of her feet up and down his leg.

He took her knight and she battered her eyelashes at him.

"Nate! You're being mean!" and her voice had something spicy on it.

"Come on Sophie, we're playing serious here!" and she glared at him in such a way, liquid brown eyes sparkling, that he undid the knot on his tie.

"Aren't we always playing serious?" she asked as her hands "distractedly" ran down her hair, exposing her neck. He grunted in a way that told her to keep playing. She moved her bishop.

"Nate," his eyes were focused on the board, planning his next move, but he still lifted his head to look at her. "Do you know what this reminds me of?" and she bit her lip, smiling at the same time. She never finished sentences like that; she always let him finish for her.

"Moscow?" He asked abstractedly yet nervously.

"Moscow!" and she seemed so frankly offended. "It was Paris! That one night in Paris! Did it mean nothing to you?" and she moved her pawn randomly on the board giving him the impression she didn't have her head on the game anymore. He growled.

"What? Was it the night you stole the Emerald necklace?" And he moved his horse on the board, closer to her king.

"You really don't remember do you?" and she sighed. "Checkmate!" and he noticed she just had taken his king with her queen.

He sighed deeply.

"Soph." He called tenderly when she already was across the room, her hips swinging.

"What?"

"Was there really a night in Paris?" She smiled at him.

"There were several!" The smile was still there, sweet and tender, reaching her eyes, making them soft.

"You were conning me, weren't you?" She laughed and shrugged, walking away.

Sophie played like that every single time and she won, every single time.

* * *

Izzie walks into the bedroom to find Collin staring with his arms crossed and her brother sitting on top of a table, swinging his legs back and forth as he too watched the twins argue.

"How?" Emily asks, her hands on her hips.

"I'll show you!" Autumn responds as she applies a pink dark shade of lipstick on her lips.

"You can't even win against me! How can you win against him?"

"I'll show you!" Autumn repeats as she steps on her new black high heels.

"What's happening?" Izzie asks confused.

"Autumn says she can win a chess game against Nate." Collin informs without taking his eyes of the twins.

"We're betting." Jake says secure that the twins are oblivious to this parallel conversation. "Want in?"

"How much?" She asks, shuffling into her back pocket.

"Twenty!" Collin informs. "I think Autumn will win this one!"

"Na-uh! Didn't you listen? She always loses against Em!" Izzie shrugs.

"Well, I am betting on Em too!" Jake smiles.

"Thanks for the support, sis!" and Collin smirks on in a way that says "You are both losing!"

They all leave the bedroom, following the twins.

Autumn stops in the living room in front of her dad.

"Do you want to play chess?" and Sophie, who's sitting by the window catching on some reading arches an eyebrow at that; she knows her daughter has something up her sleeve, but keeps silent.

Nathan lowers his newspaper down, his jaw slacking open when he sees the short dress his daughter is wearing. The other four teens sit on the couch with grins he doesn't understand.

"I thought you didn't like chess..." He manages to say, his eyes still fixed on the lack of clothes she's wearing. He doesn't like it.

"I don't. I just need something to do for the next forty-five minutes!" She says with a shrug, already setting the board. "Black or white?"

"Hu?" He asks as he walks toward the table, he definitely doesn't like that dress, or her make-up, or her heels.

"The pieces, dad. Which ones do you want to be?"

"You choose." He says and she sits, twirling the board so she's the black pieces.

They'd only played three moves when he asks:

"You needed something to do in the next forty-five minutes. What happens after that?" He doesn't even look at the board.

"Well... I'll go on a date!" Sophie calmly sips her teacup and moves so she's sitting on armchair, closer to the teens; there's definitely something going on. Autumn moves her knight, taking her dad's pawn.

"A date? Like a girl-boy date?" Nathan asks.

"Yes." She says simply. "It's your turn to play." He mumbles something and takes her knight with his rook.

"Do I know this boy? Who is he?"

"Just a boy from school; he's cute..." After that, the conversation twirls frenetically about how the boy is a quarterback from the school's team and how he used to date cheerleaders until he met her, how he cheated on most of his girlfriends, but she thinks she can change him. Every time she opens her mouth to answer his questions she shakes him up a little more.

"Are you going dressed like that?" He asks, his tie falling loose from his neck, the first three buttons open on his shirt; his curls are a mess and he's sweating.

"Yeah, what's wrong with my clothes?" and her tone is high as she pretends to be offended.

"Aren't you showing too much skin?" He asks and moves another piece on the chess board.

"I am perfectly decent!" And he raises one of his eyebrows at her, they definitely have different concepts of decent. "Plus, mum dresses like this all the time!" It's Sophie's turn to frown at her; she's currently wearing yoga pants and one of Nate's shirts.

"Your mother dresses like that when she's conning men!" He argues, he doesn't want her even near that boy, much less, dressed like that!

"Well, so am I!" and she takes his king with her last rook. "Checkmate!" and her smile is pure evil with delight.

He sighs deeply the moment he realizes what just happened, as she takes her high heels of off.

"So, you are not really dating this boy, are you?"

"Please, he's a jerk!" She says reassuring him.

"You were just playing me, there was no date all!" He says with immense relief in his voice.

Jake and Izzie both give Collin his money (of course Jake will steal it later), Sophie is smiling with pride and Emily looks both proud and defeated.

Autumn is already at the door, on the way to her room when she announces "Collin asked me out, but I said no!".

Nate's face quickly changes from relieved to furious as he makes sense of his daughter's words.

"You!" He says pointing at Collin, his face red, his voice sounding murderous. "I am going to kill you!" Jake gets up from the couch and runs.

He shows up five hours later in Autumns' room.

"I just spent five hours, hiding behind my father, trying to convince yours that I did not ask you on a date and that I do not have any kind of romantic feelings towards you or your sister! What were you thinking?" She shrugs, amused.

"Payback for that cockroach situation last week!" He growls.

"There's something wrong with you!" And he leaves the room, as Autumn giggles behind him.

**On the next chapter the kids steal a car. What could possibly go wrong?**


	15. Chapter 15

**I am sorry it took me so long to update once again but I have so much going on right now it will take me more time to update; also, I was unsure about this part of this story so I decided to write some chapters ahead before I posted it. That means the next chapters will come soon; I hope you keep reading though. Thank you so much for your support. **

**As always a big thanks to Ourison for "beta-reading " me!**

Emily leaned against the moist stone wall, ignoring the strong sense of urine that was invading her nostrils as she tried to think, as her mind worked faster than the car they had stolen, in order to get her family out of jail.

Autumn just knew her sister needed silence to get them out of that mouse trap, so she too parked herself on the floor, fighting against the senses that told her _not_ to sit on it, the same senses that were telling her _not_ to touch those filthy walls. She ignored all of those and hugged her own knees, closing her eyes and letting her mind run to a happy place.

Izzie stood on her feet, staring out the barred the window; in her pocket was a chocolate bar she'd pickpocketed from a guard at the time of their arrest. That piece of chocolate might be her way out of there, since it was so much easier to flee from a Hospital than from jail; the only problem with her plan was she'd be alone, and the rest of her family would still be in trouble. She would have to leave them there. She was staying, for now…

Five minutes after the girls were settled in they heard loud noises, coming from the cell on their right, that told them the boys had already been processed and were now being thrown on their pits of disgrace. They could hear Jake, talking, screaming actually. That boy never knew when to shut up.

"This is because I am black ain't it?", His muffled voice sounded in the distance.

Though they couldn't hear him, they all knew Collin had probably growled at that.

"The land of the free, they say!" Jake said louder, annoying the guard and everyone else around him. "What about being innocent until proven guilty?"

Autumn practically winced at those words.

"You kids were caught on the wheel of a stolen car with no documents. That's proof enough for me!" the guard shouted, losing his patience. "Now get in there!" and they heard the familiar sound of bodies being thrown against hard ground.

"That's police brutality..."

"Jake, shut the hell up!" Collin's voice sounded, echoing through the vents.

"It is, man! We're kids. They can't keep us here!" Jake pointed out; however, it was painfully obvious they could.

"Can they?" Izzie asked as she too sat on the ground, embracing her knees and as she hid her face in the gap between her legs, arms and body, Autumn could see she was trying so hard not to cry...

"We're all underage so they probably already called a representative from the children's court." Autumn responded in a low voice as she tried to remain calm.

"Girls!"

Jake's voice sounded so close, too close. Autumn turned around and realized he was actually _really_ close; he was inside the vents that connected the women's cell with the men's.

"Are you alright?" He asked. How he had managed to fit in such a small place; nobody knew.

"We're fine... Have you seen a way out of here?" Emily asked and she sounded calm and cool, she sounded like the person they trusted.

"I stole the cell keys from the officer without him noticing, but there are too many cops out there. We can't all escape and Collin won't let me leave alone..."

"You damn right I won't..." Collin's voice echoed from the vent and Emily understood him; they had all gotten into that mess, and they were all leaving together, as a team, as a family...

Suddenly Izzie started sobbing, her face now completely hidden between her knees.

"I want my daddy!"

Autumn hugged the girl and Jake went silent, his, usually smiley, face all too serious and shadowy. Emily's hands curled into fists; she was getting them out of there, for Izzie, for Jake, for Hardison.

Two and half weeks ago

She woke up with rustling noises, the sky barely starting to light up, revealing that was really earlier in the morning. Her dad was in her room, dressed in a suit.

He sat on the edge of her bed and turned the light on.

"Hey sweetie..." his voice was low and soft, almost a whisper.

"Is there something going on?" she asked as she turned around, looking for her glasses.

"No, I just came to say goodbye." She sat up on the bed while putting her glasses on; he stroked her hair with a caring hand.

"Say goodbye?"

Did the team have a job she did not know of?

"Nana called, my foster brother Liam... Do you remember Liam?"

"Tall, skinny, white man, gambling addict." She listed, her mind running over all the characteristics she remembered about the man, Hardison smiled, as he enjoyed watching the girl think; she was fast and always memorized everything that was important to everyone else, like how Autumn didn't like strawberries and Emily loved them.

"Yes, that's him. Well, he got into a mess and now daddy's going to Florida to save his white, skinny but!"

"Are mom and the others going with you?"

"Nah, boo. I can solve this on my own." And he smiled with pride. "I'll be back in a blink of an eye!" He got up, tugged her blanket and kissed her on the forehead.

"Sleep tight," he said, already at the door, "and don't mess with the house's security system while I am out!" His tone was serious but he playful winked at her before he closed the door behind him. She took her glasses, laid down on the bed and fell asleep.

A week passed by and Hardison didn't come back, nor did he call, so the rest of the team decided to go after him.

The children hadn't heard from any of them since then.

How that had led them to steal a car, Emily still didn't know. What she did know was_ that _was the moment everything went crazy...

**A/N: Big question to ask you: There will be a time where these kids will get older and mature and they will start to follow in love. About that, I have two ideas: one in which they fall in love with each other because they are the only people they can be truthful with since they don't trust other people; and other where they learn to trust other people and fall in love with strangers.**

**Which one would you rather see? Please tell me!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Last chapter I forgot to tell you're their ages. Here they are:**

**Autumn and Emily: 14**

**Collin: 14**

**Izzie: 13**

**Jake: 12**

After the team was gone, both Emily and Autumn watched their two youngest cousins go from high to low, low, down until finally Izzie and Jake both hit rock bottom. Izzie had searched everywhere, hacking into the Headquarters' computer and even her father's personal laptops (there were several scattered around the house) and she had listened to all the recorded phone calls, hoping that maybe Nana's words would give her a clue on what was happening. She found nothing, and when Jake turned the house upside down looking for something that could help them, and came back empty-handed, they both shut down from the outside world.

Their goofy spirits were crushed like two little balls of paper and they started developing behavioural patterns of anxiety and depression. Izzie's little compulsion started showing more as she did nothing but play the same game over and over again, the first Hardison had ever taught her how to play; she also kept losing, falling in the same pit time and again until she sat on the floor, curled up, and started crying her eyes out. After Autumn calmed her down she went back to playing, but she also got back into losing; Collin eventually yanked the wires out of the wall to stop her from going insane.

She refused talking to him after that.

Jake stopped picking locks, stopped stealing objects from the twins, stopped bickering with Collin. He simply laid down on the couch and closed his eyes, thinking that if he slept his days away, it wouldn't hurt so much. He also refused to eat and talk and he even though all he did was sleep, he was constantly assaulted by nightmares, which meant he didn't rest all. When Collin started bothering him about not eating he hid in the vents, not coming out for two complete days.

One day Emily entered Parker's and Hardison's part of the house and found her uncle's clothes scattered on the living floor; Jake sitting on top of them, teetering and sniffing one of his dad's coats. Meanwhile, Izzie sat on a corner with the all of the apartment's TVs, radios and computers around her, constantly clicking and typing random buttons repeating the words "we are not safe!" to herself. That was the day Emily decided she had had enough.

Emily, Autumn and Collin practically dragged the other two kids out of the house, just to get some fresh air. How they ended up stealing a car and being chased by the police Emily still doesn't know.

_Izzie was finally smiling and was kind of creepy, she was too much out of reality for Collin's taste. He flinched when she stared at him, her eyes strangely glittering._

_"Do you have a gun? I bet you could shoot the tires if you did!" She said with joy as she looked back, bright blue and red reflecting on her face as the patrol car chased theirs, ordering them to stop. _

_They wouldn't stop, their parents had always told them the police were trouble and the best thing to do was flee as fast and safe as they could. They were going fast alright, but safe was an entirely different thing. Putting Jake on the wheel had been a grave, grave mistake; Parker had taught him to drive and now he was spinning the wheel, trying to outwit the cops and manically grinning as he yelled," Who'd say a Prius could 180 this fast?"_

_Emily flinched in her seat when he shouted "Get out of the way you old bat!" at a car that was in their way._

_"Do you think they'll bring the choppers?" the redheaded asked, shifting on her seat, staring down at Emily. _

_"Oooh, the tanks! That would be so freakin' cool!" Her grin was open and wide; stealing a car was definitely the spark she needed to go back to normal. _

_"Izzie!" Collin spat. "For the last time, this is not GTA!" _

_She crossed her arms and pouted, "I never get to do anything fun!" _

"_There's something wrong with you!" Collin barked, and it really was. _

_"Okay, that's enough!" Emily said. "Jake, stop and switch places with Autumn!"_

_"What!" He started braking the car. "Why? Why do I have to switch places?" He seemed offended; he wanted the world to know that was him behind the wheel, a twelve year-old boy driving the cops insane from behind a Prius._

_"Because a black kid on the wheel of a stolen car always goes so well!" Collin barked._

_"Oh that's racism! Racism, man! Not fair!" He said as he switched places with the girl sitting next to him, the car stopped in the middle of the road, police officers coming out of their cars holding their guns in place. _

"_America!" Izzie said sarcastically yet happily. Collin growled again; what kind of pills was the girl on?_

"_There's something wrong with you!" He stated again, just in case she hadn't heard it the first time._

_The police officer stopped his own car at the same time Autumn hurriedly painted her lips with a pink lipstick she had on her purse. She then proceeded to squeeze her breasts to the centre of her torso, pulling them up and letting go after, stretching her blouse down so her cleavage with be bigger. _

"_What are you doing?" Izzie asked with an eyebrow arched. Jake was staring at the brunette not realizing his mouth was open._

"_I am making my breasts more attractive!" She replied naturally, causing Jake's mouth to open wider and Emily to cover her face with her hands in exasperation. Was everybody insane? Emily thought._

"_That would be great, if you actually had breasts!" Collin scoffed sarcastically. _

"_So… Your plan is to seduce the police officer?" Jake asked, his brain working again after the initial shock. The girl shrugged._

"_That's what my mother would do!" and she winked flirty. _

"_Your. Mother. Is. A. Grown. Woman!" Collin pointed out, trying to be very patient. The cop was closer to the car now, his hand resting threateningly on the gun's butt. "You're fourteen, the only way that will work is if he's a pedo!" He spat angrily this time. The police officer knocked on the driver's window. _

"_Maybe we'll get lucky!" she said with a smile as she turned around to open the window. _

_Collin shook his head; why was everyone around him unreasonable?_

Izzie was teetering again, tears falling down her eyes as she sobbed loudly. Autumn was trying to comfort her but it was in vain.

"I have a plan, but you all are going to hate it!" Emily informed calmly from her corner.

"What is it?" Jake's voice echoed through the vents. She explained the plan to them; it wasn't a good one but it was the best she could manage, and it was their only way out.

"Collin, are you in?" she asked, because in the end, Collin was the team's compass. Jake and Izzie, as fearless (sometimes stupid) and reckless as they could be, were the team's heart, and Autumn was the soul. But Collin, the only sane one, the one that still knew right from wrong, was their compass, keeping them in line every time they crossed one.

"Do what you gotta do!" his voice sounding muffled and distant yet firm.

"Again, why can't we use the phone our rightful phone call?" Jake asked.

"Because I don't trust those things!" Izzzie said.

"And they will be listening to us!" Emily added. "Autumn, do what you do!"

Autumn screamed, she screamed the loudest she ever had, she screamed her lugs out, screamed in terror for her life. An officer soon came, young and naïve, and entered the cell, asking them what was going on. The little grifter hugged him tight, imploring him to let her out, that she was an innocent in the middle of bloody criminals, that they all had manipulated her into stealing that car. The young officer hesitated at first, but soon walked away stating he couldn't do that.

Autumn stopped sobbing the moment the man walked out, waving a cell phone in her hands.

She gave it to Emily, who dialled a number she knew by heart.


	17. Chapter 17

**This is the third part of this story within the story, I hope you like it because there is more to come.**

He felt his cell phone vibrating on his pocket, a buzz next to his heart, increasing his stress level. He was almost sure he knew who it was; he was also very sure they weren't supposed to call so soon. He prayed Alec Hardison was alive the moment he shouted at Sophie - pardon, Mrs. Simpson - that she was a selfish greedy bitch and walked away, leaving the Hotel's bar, heading to the atrium. He heard her shout back that he was an arrogant sun of a bitch, her accent so American no man on earth would suspect her to be British, and that she should have followed her mother's advice about him. Nate was already out of sight when the mark, a Russian too full of himself to ever notice he was being conned, approached Sophie, ready to be the shoulder she'd cry on.

Nate was hiding behind the column trying to calm himself down, while inside his ear he heard Sophie conning the mark and Parker restlessly crawling inside dusty, bug crowed vents, desperate to find her husband. Eliot was inside the van, questioning Liam about what the hell had happened. The mastermind sighed deeply and finally took the cell phone from inside his front pocket. He frowned when he didn't recognize the number. That couldn't possibly be good.

"Hello." On the surface he might seem calm but anyone with half the skills of Sophie would notice the hint of panic in his voice, and his entire body was shaking.

"Dad, it's me, Emily!" and he noticed she was disguising her voice too.

"Hello, darling. How are you?" He leaned against the stone column and closed his eyes for a moment, he knew that if Emily was calling, something bad had happened and he was honestly scared of what might be. Parker was still shuffling inside the labyrinth of vents that might lead her, or not, to the room Hardison was supposedly locked in. Eliot was now threatening Liam who was too sacred of the Russians to talk and Sophie was convincing the mark that his boss was underrating him, breaking the trust chain of the organization, creating a hole they might enlarge to bring the walls down and rescue the hacker.

"I am in jail..." She paused, waiting for him to respond. Nate kept silent. He was frozen in place, not knowing how to react. He knew the day would come, that the way they had raised the kids would bite them in the ass. Hard. He was just hoping today wouldn't be that day.

"What did you do?" he inquired. Eliot suddenly became silent and Nate didn't hear the echoes of people dragging themselves through tiny metallic tunnels, which meant Parker must have stopped; they both must be aware something was going on.

"We stole a car…" She paused for a moment and he sighed deeply again, trying not to snap and shout at her for being so recklessly stupid. "Dad, we need a way out."

"Just wait!" And he hung up, not waiting for her answer.

"What is the news?" Eliot's voice resonated in his ear. Far, far away Sophie was dangerously seducing a Russian mobster.

"The kids got arrested. But I have plan."

"Am I going to like it?"

"You're going to hate it, we all are."

* * *

Autumn was sitting on the wall with her eyes closed, almost asleep. Izzie was laying down, her head resting on the grifter's lap, her chocolate bar safely kept on her pocket. Emily was watching the both of them; her father had told her to wait but that had been six hours ago and soon enough night would fall. She didn't want to spend her night in a cold jail cell, waiting for the children's lawyer to come; she knew they'd all be charged if any of them went to court…

She heard loud voices coming from the cell next to hers, where Jake and Collin were; putting those two kids together in a small space for a large amount of time had been a bad idea. They were always fighting, therefore it wasn't strange at all she was hearing loud voices. That changed when she heard the cell's door being opened, and an adult man's voice echoing above the kid's own shouts.

"Against the wall, your back turned to me, now!" He ordered and she could hear Collin growling loudly in discontent. She got up and went to her own door looking beyond the bars, to the wall where the cop was cuffing Collin and Jake.

"What's going on?" She asked in a very severe, dubious tone, trying to warn the man she knew her rights and wouldn't just stand there and let him abuse little kids. The police officer scoffed.

"I'll get to you in a minute!"

That said, he walked away from the two boys, not noticing Jake was already getting rid of his handcuffs. Collin mouthed to him that he should keep the cuffs so the cop wouldn't notice he was trying to run. The thief nodded and they both looked at Emily as the man in uniform told her to walk away from the door, waking Autumn and Izzie..

"What's going on?" Autumn asked, rubbing her eyes.

"You're getting out!" The man barked as he pushed Emily against the wall, cuffing her.

"Our innocence has been proven?" Izzie asked hopefully; she knew Uncle Nate wouldn't let her down.

"Innocent? I don't know who you punks are, but you lifted all kinds of red flags on the Interpol; there's an agent outside waiting for you!" Autumn eyed Emily strangely, looking for an answer; her sister nodded, confirming what she was afraid of.

On the outside a man was waiting for them. He turned around with a cocky grin on his face that matched his evil green eyes, his hands causally shoved on the pockets of his suit and a colourful tie hanging from the neck of his very peculiar shirt. He was the man they had never seen, but heard of so many times, the man that had been on their childhood nightmares.

"Hello kids!" He said and his smile widened, his accent sounding distinctly English.

"Sterling!" The twins said at the same time.

"That's it! I am eating my chocolate!" Izzie shouted, freeing her hands from the cuffs.

**What do you think Sterling is going to do? How will the kids react to him?**


	18. Chapter 18

Captain George Stark was the first man to arrive at the accident scene, the Jackson's couple was already dead; yet when he thought there wasn't any hope left he heard the cries and, following the high sounds that drummed at the sound of his heartbeat he found her, a sweet baby girl still huddled in her egg chair, inside the wreckage that used to be a family car.

He took her out of the chair, wrapped her in his own uniform's coat and rocked her, humming sweet words into her ear. She was the smallest, sweetest baby he had ever seen, with locks of bright, cooper coloured hair and scared green eyes. She hadn't a single scratch yet she wouldn't stop crying, which made Stark think she might have a concussion. The three month old baby was taken to the hospital by an ambulance and after several tests, it was confirmed the girl had no physical damage what so ever; there was no physical reason for her crying.

Three days passed and because the Jackson's had no family (they were both single children and their parents were deceased) the little girl was sent to the foster care.

She never stopped crying; people would rock her, sing to her, show her colourful, noisy things, beg and even yell at her. The baby would never stop crying. She also refused to eat, losing weight by the day, and the people responsible for her were all certain she wasn't going to see two years old; there's was no God keeping an eye on that girl.

Everything changed the day she turned six months old. A well-dressed, black man and a pregnant blonde with crazy eyes walked in waving some official documents at them, alleging the girl was theirs, that the adoption process was already complete so they were within their rights to take her home. The social worker checked that information on her computer; it matched their story yet, not happy with that, she called her superiors. A man quickly answered and confirmed what the couple had said to her. The social worker finally gave in and led them to the baby.

Elisabeth Jackson was lying on her crib, crying as always. The blonde leaned on the crib and stared right into the baby's eyes. The girl stopped crying and stared back with big surprised eyes and no other expression.

"Hi, girl. Hi, sweetie!" The blonde greeted on a soft voice and the baby extended her thin arms in the air, trying to catch the golden locks hovering above her. The woman turned back.

"Why is she so skinny? Are you not feeding her?" She stepped back from the crib in a threatening posture, not giving the social assistant time to talk. "Because if you aren't…!" Her hands curled into fists, her lips forming a thin line as she walked towards the assistant.

"Par... I mean Alice, dear, please! I am sure there's an explanation for this." He turned to face the assistant, his face grave and severe. "Isn't there?"

"We tried to feed her! She... she won't eat..."

"Pass me the bottle!" The woman replied with determination.

"I will get one ready, right away!" The woman agreed, leaving the room; that couple scared her.

When she came back with the bottle Elizabeth was on the blonde's arms with the same blank expression as before.

When the woman started feeding her the bottle the girl didn't resist, nor did she cry. When Elisabeth finished she extended her arms on the man's direction and he pulled her into his arms, burping her.

For the first time in her life since the car accident Elizabeth Jackson smiled; she gripped her new daddy's shirt with her tiny little hands and didn't let go. She never let go...

* * *

Izzie sat in the van being crushed between Collin and Jake; Autumn was on Collin's side and Emily was on the front next to Sterling, who was driving them home. At least that was what he said; of course, no one believed him.

"This is a trap!" Jake shouted from his seat. "This man is a liar!" And he crossed his arms in a pout.

"I never thought I'd say this in my entire life, but I agree with Jake here. Em, how do we know this is not a trap?!" Collin's voice sounded from behind her. Emily sighed deeply and took the previously stolen phone from her pocket.

"Hey, I thought I had taken your phones away!" Sterling remarked, his eyes on the road.

"You did." Emily replied shortly, implying she had stolen it. "Hello dad..."

Emily was on the phone for two brief seconds.

"So?" Izzie asked hopefully the moment the brunette hang up the phone.

"I am afraid it's true. Dad said it was a favour or something..."

"I was in Washington working on a very nasty case when your dad called. I will take care of you until they get back and in exchange he'll give me some much needed information on that particular case..." and he grinned, pattering his fingers on the wheel. "You know, I should thank you. If you hadn't stolen that car, I wouldn't be solving this case any time soon..." and he grinned more. Autumn grabbed Collin by the arm the moment she saw his face go red and his knuckles go white with anger. Emily looked through the window, simply ignoring his comment and Jake mumbled something to himself about stealing everything Sterling ever loved and destroying it; Izzie got strangely quiet.

She felt the floor slip from under her feet the moment Emily stopped talking, she felt the car shrink smaller and smaller until she didn't fit in it anymore. The air around her got denser and denser and all of a sudden it hurt to inhale; also, the air left on her lungs seemed to have solidified, chocking her; causing tears to spill out of her eyes, burning their way as they rolled on her face.

The world became silent except for the thunderstorm that was her heartbeat and everything started spinning around, dancing and waving in front of her eyes. Her hands lost track of all things solid and started shaking, gripping more and more at the hem of her shirt as if that was the only thing she had left, the only thing that told her that situation was real: her biggest nightmare come true. She felt something touching her, light, like a feather brushing her skin, and she found out she was petrified. She couldn't react to it; she couldn't turn around to see what it was. Then, it touched her again, stronger this time, grabbing her by the shoulders and shoving her until she managed to move, facing what it was that was touching her. Collin, he was speaking, however she couldn't understand what he was saying. The only words she could hear were the desperate screams bursting inside her head. He shoved her again, harder and repeated what he had said. She opened her mouth to speak. Nothing came out, no matter how hard she tried. She closed her mouth and opened again, her hands gripping so hard at the hems of her blouse she could feel her nail digging in her palms.

"I... I... Can't... Breathe!" And she went silent, everyone inside the car looking at her (except Sterling, who didn't give a damn.), her chest waving up and down as her entire body shook as if she was going hypothermic. Her face was red and Collin had never seen her cry like that, not even as a small child.

"Stop the car!" Collin shouted, violently kicking the back of Sterling's seat. "Can't you see she can't breathe?!"

"She's faking it!" Sterling replied, his eyes focused on the road.

"Are you that much of a dumbass?" Jake asked with an arched brow.

"I am grifter and I can't do that!" Autumn exclaimed, looking puzzled at the girl. Sterling finally moved his eyes from the road to the front mirror and saw the girl. He stopped the car immediately and Jake opened the passenger door. No one had to say a word, Izzie unbuckled her belt and jumped over Jake, trying to get out of the car and kicking him on her way out. Everyone else get out after that.

The redhead was leaving the road, running and stumbling to the grass field that was a few feet away.

"Izzie, wait for me!" Jake said running after her sister. He was quickly grabbed from behind and pulled back.

"Stay here! I got this!" Collin ordered between his teeth, in a way much like his father.

He was doing what his father had told him to do. _When we are not here you have to make sure they are ok! _

Izzie was kneeling on the grass, her fingers tangling on the turf, clenching hard on it, her knuckles still white from the strength she was applying. Her torso was going up and down, getting calmer and slower as she started to breathe normally, tears still falling from her eyes.

He knelt beside her.

"Izzie, darlin', what's going on?" He asked calmly, slowly stroking her back.

"You don't understand, do you?" She asked, frustration in every single word. Her red hair hid her face from him, like a curtain.

"Understand what?"

"Sterling is evil! He will take us from our parents!" She replied angrily between clenched teeth.

**Do you think that is the truth? Is Sterling evil to that point?**


	19. Chapter 19

"He can't do that!" He replied softy, as if soothing the fears of a small child.

"We all have fake records. We don't go to school with our real names and the names on our birth certificates aren't our parents'!" She sat on the ground, moving her hair so she could see him. "Emily, Autumn, Jake...Sterling can't take them away because they really are Nate and Sophie's, Parker and Hardison's children, but we..."

"We are adopted...I mean…you are." She chuckled as if he was some deluded person she was clarifying for.

"My adoption process was faked. Hardison hacked into the foster system and forged the papers! Do you think Sterling doesn't know that?" She got up, staring back at him with fury dancing on her eyes. "He's mean and revengeful, always trying to damage the team! He will take us from our parents, Collin! Where do you think we'll be placed at? On a foster home like Nana's or on a nightmare house like the ones Parker was in?" She was waving her arms around, walking in circles as she spoke and, honestly, he didn't like that he used Hardison and Parker instead of mommy and daddy, that kind of displacement from her worried him to no end. The blond boy got up and grabbed her by the shoulder making her stop on her heels.

"Sterling is not a bad man. He's cynical and arrogant, but he's not bad. He's a cop fighting for what he believes in and our parents, no matter what their purposes are, they are still thieves." She swallowed hard, staring at him. "I hate him but I have to recognize, he's not a bad man and he knows you are with the best parents you could ever be, he won't take you away. He won't!"

"How can you be so sure?" She wanted to believe him so hard.

"And if he does, your father will hack the foster system again and get you back in the blink of an eye..." She chuckled even though her eyes were floating with crystalline tears once again.

"My father? I don't even know if he's alive. How could he save me?" And the corner of her mouth twisted on a side smile.

"Don't say that…"

"It's true! It's true…" and the tears started rolling down her face, so Collin did the thing his Uncle Nathan had always told him not to do.

_"Please, please, please, __pleaseeeee__!" Collin growled and shoved the boy away from him. _

_"Fine! I'll teach you tomorrow!" Jake smiled widely and started jumping from foot to foot, still too close to Collin. _

_"Promise?" and the boy smiled more, his hands together like he was praying. Collin groaned in discontent; he loved Jake, but damn, the kid could be so annoying sometimes! _

_"Promise!" Collin nodded and Jake jumped at him and hugged him tight. _

_"Yay! You're the best, man! If I was a girl I'd kiss you!" The blond boy stepped away and the younger boy parted, jumping like always. _

_Nathan, who'd been watching the entire scene, lowered his newspaper on the table. _

_"You shouldn't have done that!" He commented firmly. "You shouldn't make promises like that." _

_"Why not?" Collin asked with an arched brown; Nathan Ford was a complicated, twisted man. _

_"Looks like it's going to rain tomorrow." _

_Collin crossed his arms in defiance. _

_"If I can teach him how to throw a curve ball in the sun, I can do it in the rain!" Nathan grinned __sadly; that boy__'s stubbornness sometimes reminded him of another boy, one he had loved and lost. _

_"You shouldn't make promises!" Nate repeated. "__You'll__ learn that the hard way." And with that he got back to his newspaper. _

_"Was that what happened to you?" Collin asked with curiosity, he had never seen __Nathan promise__ anything, not even to his daughters. The man lowered his newspaper again and sighed deeply, eyeing the high ceilings. _

_"When Sam got sick, I promised him everything would be alright..." Collin's heart skipped a beat, Nathan seemed so sad yet so angry, it was clear he still hadn't stopped blaming himself from his son's death; maybe he never would... _

_(the next day)_

_Jake entered the house with a happy grin, covered in mud, leaving dirty footprints wherever he walked. _

_"Hey Uncle Nate, guess what?" and he was grinning even wider than normally. _

_"What, kiddo?" _

_"I know how to throw a curve ball in the rain! In the rain! Can you believe that?" Nathan smiled sympathetically and watched as the boy walked away yelling for his parents. Collin walked in a few moments later, cleaner than Jake, the wood bat over his shoulder. _

_"I told you I could do it!" He said with a proud grin. Nathan didn't reply at all. The boy was at door when he turned back facing the blue-eyed man. "Uncle Nate, do you believe in heaven?" _

_Nate frowned at the __question but still__ replied. "I used to..." _

_"I don't think you broke your promise to __Sam...__ he went to heaven. He's fine!" _

_"You're toeing the line, Colin!" The mastermind warned, when Collin walked __away, however, he__ could see __his uncle smile__ through the corner of his eyes. _

"Sterling is not taking you away and your father will come back safe and sound. I promise!" She stopped for a moment, staring at him. Among the things she knew about Collin - that he had a temper and was impatient by nature - there was one she admired the most: he always kept his promises. Always!

"You do?" She asked puzzled, he nodded and extended his hand with a clenched pinkie.

"Pinkie promise!" She smiled, took his finger in hers and launched herself at him, hugging as tight as humanly possible. Collin didn't react at first, caught in surprise; he was not much of a hug person, but soon she felt his arms wrap around her small body.

They turned around to go back to the car; everyone was staring at them, bewildered. Sterling was the first to react, offering Izzie a sip of water and asking her if she was feeling better. When she refused his gesture of good will he ordered everyone to get in the car and buckle up. They travelled in silence until they got home. The worst of it all was yet to come...

**So, what do you think happens next?**


	20. Chapter 20

**I will start by apologising to all the Jersey Shore funs out there, but just had too much fun with this chapter. I hope you do to…**

The worst part of the situation was not only Sterling being their bail out, but that he was responsible for them until their parents got back home, and the worst of it all, he had the power to punish them if needed to… and he was well convinced he needed to. All computers, handheld video games and other electronic devices that could be hacked or used to hack were taken from Izzie, along with Jake's tools. Those included all of his harnesses and ropes, his padlocks, and lock pick sets, along with many other useful paraphernalia used to do that magic of his.

Sterling also took all of Emily's notepads and chess board - along with its pieces -and Autumn lost each and every one of her books and movies; Collin had all of his knives and other weapons taken from him, along with his punching bag. Sterling took all of those things to the unbreakable room.

The unbreakable room was the only room in the house the kids had never, ever, ever been able to break in to. In fact, it was a huge panic room that had been designed by Parker and developed by Hardison; the security system was mad, almost to the point of getting you killed, that is, if you got through the door first. Only Parker and Hardison knew how to break in and they had to do it together, otherwise, it was impossible. The blonde thief knew that room like the back of her hand, and she had broken twelve different bones the only time she tried.

The panic room was empty, it served protection purposes only. If someone ever broke in, seeking revenge than, the kids were the priority and they'd all be shoved in that room so no harm would come upon them. Only a hand full of people outside the team new the codes, unfortunately Sterling was one of them and now, he was using the room to punish them.

It was the cruellest thing that had ever been done to them, because now they'd have to sit all day on the living room watching TV, behaving like normal kids.

They hated Sterling and secretly vowed they'd get their revenge someday, but the day hadn't come yet.

They've been stuck on the Ford's living room watching some weird show called Jersey Shore for the past three hours. (It was a special). Jake had fallen asleep after the first two episodes, snuggling on the couch like a cat, curled around a pillow and kicking Collin every once in a while.

Izzie had just sat there staring, constantly making questions that included. "Are these people injured? In the head?", "Why are they so orange? Do they have a skin disease or something? Is it contagious? They shouldn't be allowed around other people." Collin had chuckled at that last sentence and agreed with it as he yawned. Her questions continued. "Why is that Umpa Lumpa wearing a dead cat as a hat?"

On the other hand Autumn was evilly smiling and giggling from time to time like a maniac. She continued like that for several episodes until Emily lost her patience.

"What? What? Autumn, what?" she asked and Autumn, who was cross-legged sitting on the fluffy carpet, pointed at the scream with an amused expression.

"I bet I could pretend to be one of them, seduce those guys and maybe half of those girls, rip them off of everything they have, right in front of their eyes and they wouldn't even notice it. In fact, they'd crawl after me, begging me to come back and fulfil their empty little lives..." and she giggled causing Emily to sigh and frown at the same time.

"And to think Emily was the evil one..." Collin said to himself hissing when Jake kicked him on the ribs for the third consecutive time.

"Is she saying that she wants to be the queen of the Umpa Lumpas? Is that what she is saying?" Izzie asked slightly confused..

"No, I am saying that it would be the easiest con of my life! And they are not Umpa Lumpas!" Izzie purely wasn't listening any more, her eyes fixed on the TV. She was really intrigued by the show.

"I don't think you could do it." Emily teased from her place in the couch.

"What? Are you kidding me? This is just like watching a Discovery Geographic channel about chimps or something..."

"No." Collin retorted. "Chimps, are smart; they adapt and evolve. Please don't insult chimps by comparing them with these people..."

"And you just confirmed my point. I don't think you could con a group of chimps either..."

"Well, they are not exactly chimps..."

"They are Umpa Lumpas that were expelled from the chocolate factory for being too useless and not obeying to their master's authority!" Izzie said, happy with her own conclusion causing Collin to spit his milk out of his nose, waking Jake up.

"Dude, you shouldn't drink that if you can't hold it down!" he said mockingly; the twins were still arguing whether or not Autumn could con those people. "I am serious, dude. I worry about you. You' been drinking too much of that stuff lately... Ya know, milk won't solve your problems, you should consider rehab or somethin'... Maybe a support group." And his smile widened showing with teeth as he rambled, stuck inside his own joke. "I think the Milkaholics anonymous could really help you!" and he laughed.

Collin growled and told him to shut up once again; however, he couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from curling a little. "Are you still watching this show?"

"Yeah, I am trying to explain to Autumn here why she couldn't con them." Emily replied, stretching on the couch.

"She says she wants to be the Queen of the Umpa Lumpas." Izzie replied with a small smile. Jake blinked in confusion.

"What?" Sometimes his sister's weirdness surpassed his own.

"... I am just telling you; it's not that you are not smart enough, it's that no one relatively intelligent can pretend to be that dumb that long."

"Really? Then, why do people say you can pretend dumb, but you can't pretend smart?" Autumn had an arched eyebrow and was now sitting with her back to the TV completely facing her sister.

"Are they going to fight?" Izzie asked pulling her knees closer to her body, swaying lightly. She had started sitting on the arm chair, but was now on the floor, sitting below Collin and Jake. "They're creepy when they do!"

"Just like Nate and Sophie but without making out after." Jake pointed out.

"Ewww... That's just... Ewww!"

"Damn it, Jake! What the hell!?" Collin shifted on couch, putting some space between him and that screwed up kid, as if all of a sudden he had leprosy.

"What? What did I say?" Collin shook his head.

"There's something wrong with you!"

Meanwhile, the twins were still arguing.

"I am just saying you'd get shocked and frustrated by the amount of stupidity. Eventually they'd go over the top with it, you'd lose it, point out how stupid they were and your alias with be ruined... I'd give it three weeks maximum."

"I still don't understand why you want to be Queen of the Umpa Lumpas. Is it for the chocolate factory? If you got the factory would let you me eat some chocolate?" Izzie insisted. Autumn covered her face with her hands, sighing deeply.

"Would someone please explain to me why we are talking about Umpa Lumpas! And, why on earth would Autumn be their queen?" Jake demanded, getting annoyed.

"For the last time I am not the queen..."

Suddenly Snooki showed up on the screen and Izzie pointed at it.

"Is the dead cat a symbol of power like a crown or something? Will you have to wear a dead cat when you are the queen?" Autumn was about to angrily respond when Emily started laughing hysterically.

She lost balance and fell off the couch, kneeling on the floor, her face red and tears coming out of her eyes. Everyone stared at her in dead silence. Was that it? Had Emily finally lost what was left of her mind? Would they have to send her to an institution?

Her belly hurt terribly when she finally managed to regain some control over her self-person.

"Snooki: The Queen of the Umpa Lumpas!" She announced, gesturing with her hands so it seemed like she was lining the title on the air.

Collin snorted his milk out of his nose again, except this time it was all over Jake's lap.

"Seriously, man? Serioulsy!"

**Once again I am terribly sorry it has been taking me so long to update, but I hope you are still interested on this story. I will post the next chapter as fast as it is possible. **

**Feedback with be appreciated. **


	21. Chapter 21

Collin walked in the kitchen to get a wet cloth so he could clean the milk he had spilled. He found Sterling rummaging in the middle of all kinds of pots and pans, opening and closing the kitchen cabinets. He turned around when he saw the boy.

"Where does Sophie keep the knives?" He asked on his raspy voice.

"Sophie doesn't cook; I doubt she even knows where the knives are. My dad keeps them on a sealed box inside the bottom drawer on the stove's left." Sterling twirled around on his heels, opening said drawer and growling in frustration.

"They aren't here." The agent said as he scrambled through the notes Eliot left for Amy and Maggie over the years since they were the two people that usually took care of them. Peering over the Interpol Agent's shoulder the blond boy was able to read a few:

_Izzie__ is highly allergic to chocolate. Do not give her brown candies and tell her there's chocolate in it; she'll figure out __it's a lie and you will wake in the middle of the night wet and with your room flooding because she took revenge by turning on the fire security system while you were asleep. _

_Jake is never allowed more than one portion of sugar a day. If he does get more than one portion Parker and Hardison will punish you by making you take him to the park and he will disappear. You will only find him seventeen hours later showing "Sugar withdrawal" symptoms, whatever that is. He will sleep for fourteen hours after that. _

_Autumn hates strawberries, Emily loves them. Do not buy strawberries, don't bring them home, don't think of it, don't speak about it, and don't remind them of it. If you do __they'll__ make you buy them and spend the rest of the day pretending to be one another, constantly changing your mind about the damn fruit and leading you to the path of insanity until you throw out everything you cooked that day. _

_Always have milk at home, enough milk for all the kids and an extra stash because milk is never enough. If you forget to buy milk and Collin doesn't get his normal of two litters and half per day he will get cranky and aggressive, and you will have __to ground__ him for violently pushing Autumn out of the couch because she was insistently trying to braid __his__ (short) hair._

The rest was a long, long list about what vegetables the kids did and did not like and how to combine them so they'd eat properly and be healthy.

"Check again!"

Sterling grumbled, but checked again, finding the drawer had a hidden compartment.

"Why does your father hide the knives? Aren't you kids old enough to know you shouldn't play with them?"

"Have you ever seen Parker and Hardison fight because he fell asleep on a job inside Lucille, not telling her the guards were coming and almost getting her killed by said guards? That's why!" Sterling frowned in disbelief, showing he thought Eliot's method was naïve.

"Are you telling me, Parker, the best thief in the world and also the noisiest, doesn't know where your father keeps the knives?"

"Oh no, she does. But when she's mad to the point where she wants to break Uncle Hardison in half she just grabs whatever comes at hand, not bothering to search. That's why the knives aren't handy." Collin made a small pause before continuing. "Once she used one of Jake's stuffed bears. Those things are deadly!"

Collin walked away with the cloth and came back about fifteen minutes later. He put the cloth away and started taking food from the fridge. "What are we cooking?" He asked as he rolled up his sleeves.

"We?" The adult asked sceptically.

"I just want to make sure you don't poison us." The boy retorted; he started putting all the pots Sterling had unnecessarily taken out on their respective places.

"I don't poison small children."

"You could drug us to keep us asleep until our parents got back..."

Sterling chuckled, also rolling his sleeves up. "Why didn't I think of that before?"

"Do you even know how to cook?" Collin smirked arrogantly.

Collin was chopping tomatoes next to Sterling, who was cutting the meat, when the Interpol Agent started making small talk.

"So, Izzie, the redheaded..." Almost immediately the knife in Collin's hand buried its tip on the chopping board between Sterling's fingers, almost cutting through the place where said fingers united.

"You do not fuck with Izzie!" Collin's tone was grave yet calm, deadly calm, every word carefully paused as a sign of warning. The boy had turned around to face a very surprised Sterling. The boy was standing very straight, his chest out making him bigger as his brown eyes stared coldly into Sterling's.

"Do you kiss your family goodnight with that mouth?" Sterling asked trying to ease the mood. Collin didn't speak. Instead, his face grew even more somber and he stepped forward standing inches away from Sterling, his eyes never looking away from the agent's. It was so effective the older man even forgot the kid was shorter than him. "You can try to manipulate the twins. You can. You can tell them how their father went so low from the life he used to have and how their mother is a pathological liar that can't live with her true self and creates all of those alias because she is just a coward. You can do that. They won't listen, they will be so bored by your weak attempt at turning them against their parents they won't even notice it." The kid's eyes were expressionless; that made Sterling shiver and Sterling was not the kind of man to scare easy.

"You can try to mess with Jake's head. You can tell him how screwed up his mother is; you can tell him how his dad failed in life because he could have been anything and he would have been great, but he wasted his life and became an immoral criminal instead. He will not think on it for enough time to forget it. He probably won't even listen to you. And you can tell him how screwed up he is and that it's their parent's fault. He will laugh in your face and tell you that's a good thing."

And then the boy smiled slightly, though the smile was quickly gone as he continued, his right hand still grabbing the knife's handle.

"And me. You can go on and tell me that my dad was, still is, nothing but a murder and that he deserved to pay for his sins or you can tell me about how he's not my real dad and try to convince me he only adopted because he felt guilty since he never made an effort to save my lost mother. You can tell me every bad thing you know about my real parents, tell me that in the end I am just white trash, like them and I will never be anything more. You can try to bring me down Sterling, because in the end I know who I am and nothing you can say will ever change that. But Izzie..."

He lowered his face for a moment looking down; when he looked up, he had a strange smile on his face, like he was blood thirsty. "You. Do. Not. Mess. With. Izzie!" His head titled a little towards the knife as he spoke. "Because if you do..." He pulled the knife from the chopping board stabbing again, the blade actually grazing Sterling's skin this time, leaving a small cut on the place where the index and middle fingers from his right hand unite.

The boy left the kitchen after that, whistling like a maniac. Sterling cleaned the small cut with a clean cloth and kept cutting. He was clever man, he had understood the message and he would definitely not try to manipulate that girl, yet he smiled because Sterling never loses, and he now knew something about those two kids no one else did...


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: A very big Thank you to Orison who has the patience and the skills to beta everything I write. I know it's taking me a reaaaaly long to update which is the main reason I am working on this story alone and not two or three at the same time, but along with the mess my personal life is for the moment, my computer broke (I am posting because a dear friend borrowed me hers) which makes everything even more difficult. Truth to be said, I love what I am writing and I already have many next chapters up my sleeve, both planned inside my head and written inside my broken computer (Which is repairing, nothing is lost) so if you enjoy reading this as well please do tell me and I will carry with this story to its end. For those of you who like the characters as children, I have some chapters of those planned too. As long as I have one supporter I will keep writing so, let me know… Love, Scasfra**

**This is the night the kids drive Sterling insane. Also, Sterling cooks very well for the matter they are just really mean.**

It starts with dinner. To Sterling they are not children, no, and he is certain they are evil spawn sent directly from hell to curse him. It starts when Sterling takes a seat at Jake's side and the boy immediately gets up, jumping to his feet and asking him what the hell he is he doing. Izzie stares at Sterling with a blank expression he doesn't quite understand.

"You are not allowed to sit on our parents' places." she affirms. Sterling gets up, not wanting to get on the wrong foot with those kids since he will have to watch over the four, and for God knows for how much time.

"So where am I supposed to sit?" He asks, forcing his voice to seem calm. Collin, who is carefully poking at his food with a fork replies with scorn in his voice.

"What about outside?"

He continues to poke, as if searching from something unknown and potentially dangerous to be on his plate. Emily sips her glass of water, a really small sip and tastes it like it's wine, almost as if she is afraid her water is poisoned or drugged.

"That would be a great idea!" Jake shouts, jumping around the kitchen.

"That is not going to happen!" Sterling says, his voice harsh this time just so these kids remember who he is.

Autumn, who is sitting with crossed arms and legs away from the table arches an eyebrow at him and stares at her food, then back at him and back at her food.

"Do we really have to eat this?" She asks, sounding a little bit disgusted.

"Yes!" Sterling shouts, and his face turns red the moment he realizes Jake has his feet on the kitchen counter, the upper side of his body already disappearing into the a vent.

"Get out of there!" He shouts once again. Jake immediately jumps down.

"Okay, man, there's no need to yell!"

Sterling closes his eyes for a moment, trying to control himself, counting to ten; when he finally opens his eyes, the twins are staring at him with tilted heads, Collin as has a fork full of food in the air and scrutinizing it with his eyes, and the red-head is literally stabbing her food with the fork as she holds her knife in the air with the blade down, just in case something alive jumps out of her plate.

"Okay" He states, more to himself than those present. "Where do Amy and Maggie usually sit?" He thought since those two women were usually the people who take care of them they must have a place of their own.

"Amy is only allowed on Parker's chair" Autumn replied, still staring at her food with a disgusted expression. The word 'allowed' again? Those children are far too territorial.

"Aunt Maggie can sit wherever she wants to" Collin replies as he tastes his food with the tip of his tongue.

"But she usually sits next to Jake." Emily continues as she sat, fork in hand, poking her fillet and immediately recoiling as if she expects it to move.

"Because he tends to do what he just did." Autumn adds with a smile as she isolates a slice of tomato and carefully cuts it with a curious yet suspicious look. "Does this have strawberries?"

"I love strawberries!" Emily immediately declares.

"No, it doesn't have... wait! What did Jake do?"

He arches an eyebrow at them; Izzie giggles, Collin shrugs with an arrogant smirk on his face.

"Collin, do you think the tomato is edible?" Autumn asks the blond boy before she tells Sterling to look around.

Jake Parker Hardison, age twelve, is nowhere to be found.

"Where did he go?"

Collin shrugs again, answering to both Sterling and Autumn. Izzie giggles some more and then proceeds to stab her food again.

Sterling's hands curl into fists, his face even more red. He is not going to spend his entire night looking for a hyperactive kid.

"Jake!" He screams, screeching a few moments after when the kid innocently asks "What?" from behind his ear.

How the hell did he do that? Forget it, Sterling doesn't want to know.

"Sit on your place and eat, all of you, eat!" He orders. "And I am going to sit next to Jake and it's nobody's business. I am the adult here!" The four people pause staring at Sterling, and Emily is the first to respond.

"Aren't you over reacting?" She asks with the most annoying neutral tone.

Izzie on the other hand, drops her fork and grabs Parker's chair, holding it closer to her chest, seeming even smaller. She squints her eyes at him on a challenging expression.

"If you sit on my parents' place I'll make sure every cell phone you have from today on will only allow the Nyan Cat song as a ring tone!"

Sterling stares at her for a few moments, pondering his options, after all she won't be grounded forever and Olivia, unfortunately, already showed him that dreadful Nyan cat video. There is a change she is bluffing he thinks, but then he remembers that for all effects she is thief and thieves don't bluff. He lazily drops his hands, letting them fall to the sides of his body.

"Fine." He says and the girl drops the chair, getting back to analysing her food. "I think I'll sit on Nate's Ford seat than." He announces, hoping the twins are a little more reasonable. They eye each other for a moment before nodding and Emily pulls the chair next to her away from the table so the Interpol agent can sit.

"We can disinfect it with bleach after." Autumn assures, patting her sister's shoulder. "I am pretty sure you put strawberries on this!"

Sterling face-palms.

"It's fish fillets with vegetables and white rice, why would I put strawberries on it?" He is exasperated, and he doesn't remember a time in his life where he felt so defeated.

He uncovers his eyes just in time to see Izzie carefully sniffing her food, and he face-palms again. Jake is the only one eating, but it seems that kid will eat anything you put in front of him.

"I don't know." Autumn replies. "Maybe because you know I don't like strawberries."

"That's cruel!" Emily says. Sterling explodes.

"HAVE YOU EVEN TASTED IT?"

"No! I won't it if it has strawberries on it!" and she crosses her arms in front of her torso, throwing a tantrum.

"Fine, don't eat! I don't care!" He shouts. A few minutes of silence pass by with Jake happily eating, Izzie sniffing her food and the other three kids staring at their plates.

"If she's not eating, I am not eating either" Emily concludes, Sterling buries his face in his hands.

"Did you follow my dad's recipe?" Collin asks after a while.

"Yes." Sterling mumbles. "why?"

"Because I am pretty sure it's not supposed to look like a dog barfed it." Izzie immediately drops her fork.

"Maybe it is dog's barf!" and all the other kids stare at Jake with strange looks while he eats.

"It tastes good to me!" The boy replies with his mouth full.

"Well, you once ate a chip from the floor." His sister spats.

"I am not eating dog's barf!" and she adopts Autumn's posture. Sterling truly feel like sending those children back to jail again, but the adults wouldn't like it and if Nathan holds grudges, Eliot holds even more.

"Can we get up from the table?" Collin asks, twirling his fork on his plate.

"Sure, do whatever you want!" Sterling snarls and the kids start to walk away. Jake is the last to leave the kitchen since he still takes a few more bites from his food before shrugging and following the others.

Sterling eats in silence, mumbling how about his food is perfectly damn fine and he spent three hours cooking Spencer's fish recipe so they'd all like it and how about they all are a bunch of brats.

His has just finished the food when he smells it. Food.

He enters Spencer's kitchen to find Collin cooking scrambled eggs with sausages and mushrooms. Jake is perched on the kitchen counter swinging his legs back and forth as well as his torso. Autumn and Izzie are, for some crazy reason, fighting about Oompa-Loompas and dead cats; how those two themes could ever connect Sterling doesn't know. Emily is placing the dishes and helping the blond boy.

"What are you doing?" Sterling asks, leaning against the door frame.

"We're riding dinosaurs!" Jake answers and then he makes roar sound and starts running around the dinner table, his arms on a T-Rex position as he roars. Autumn giggles at that.

"We're cooking. We need to eat something!" Collin spats as if Sterling hasn't spent the last three hours cooking for them. The boy turns the stove of and places a tray full of said scrambled eggs on the table, serving Autumn a plate.

"Ladies first" he says with a gentle smirk. "Strawberries free."

Autumn smiles back and immediately digs into those eggs. Collin hands the next two plates to Emily and Izzie and finally serves one for himself; he doesn't bother with Jake because everyone knows the boy will finish the entire tray, but what no one knows is how in the hell he is so skinny.

"But now I feel like having strawberries!" Emily says between bites.

"Don't worry hon', we'll by some tomorrow and I'll make you a nice dessert with them."

"How are you getting strawberries if you don't have any money?" Sterling asks from the corner where he is watching that dysfunctional family. Everyone stares at him.

"Seriously?" Jake asks. "Seriously? Is he that dumb? How the hell did he got to be an Interpol agent?"

"He used our parents." Emily informs, directly looking at Sterling, poison on every word of hers.

Sterling chooses to ignore that particular comment.

"So, you are stealing strawberries?" He questions.

"No!" Izzie says "That would be wrong!" and her tone sounds like she is stating something obvious, she sounds honest which confuses James since those kids stole a car earlier that day.

"I will pickpocket someone and then, we will buy the strawberries.", Jake says, winking at Emily.

"Isn't that wrong too?" Sterling askes, as these kids' logic was completely... well, illogical.

"That is why I will read the mark...You know, to see if they really need the money. Besides, it's just a couple of bucks!" Autumn replies. Emily frowns.

"Wait, you are helping me to get strawberries?"

The brunet grifter nods.

"I hate strawberries, you, not so much!" Emily smiles.

"But we are only doing this if you two promise not to mess with my mind about the damn dessert!" Collin states, putting his plate away, while Jake eats what Izzie didn't.

"But messing with people's minds about strawberries is so much fun!" She gives a small laugh, as Emily playfully hits her.

"Please, Autumn, just this time" Emily pouts and her twin smiles.

"Fiiiine!"

Autumn takes one last bite before she too, hands her plate to Jake. Isn't that kid ever full?

"What makes you think I won't stop you?" Sterling states defiantly. The boy thief chuckles.

"I'd like to see you trying to stop me from pickpocketing someone." and with that they all look away from Sterling, giving the innuendo that they are done with that conversation. Sterling decides to leaves the room.

The next day when they all walk in with a strawberry bag on in their hands Sterling says nothing, just shaking his head and walking away; there are things he'd rather not know.

Their second fight flares that night at bedtime because none of the children can agree where Sterling should sleep. That house has one spare room and apparently the kids treat it as a sanctuary. As far as Sterling understands, Amy slept there when they were small and she'd stay the nights to babysit them, but now that they were older, not wiser though, she sleeps at her own house which means the room is exclusively Maggie's because Tara and Archie always stay at a hotel when they visit.

"So where am I supposed to sleep?" He asks, bringing his hands to his head in despair; those little bastards are driving him insane.

"Well, not in Maggie's room!" Izzie argues, of them all she seems to be the most territorial one.

"Why not?" He questions, trying to make sense of those kids. "It's just a room, I change the sheets and all it's perfectly fine!"

"No!" She screams. "The room still smells like her and I want to keep it that way!" Everyone shuts up and stares at her with raised eyebrows; the kids get back to normal after a few seconds, reminding themselves it is Izzie they are talking about.}¡ Sterling stares a bit more; that girl scares him. He honestly doesn't know if Collin threatened him to protect her or to protect the very own Sterling; the child is way too much out of reality to be safe, and she gives him the creeps.

"Why can't he sleep on your parents' room?" The hacker asks the twins. They glare at her like she has gone insane.

"Seriously, Izzie? Are you for real?" Emily and Autumn ask both at the same time.

"Yeah, he already sat on your parents chair..."

"It's not the same thing!" They both affirm, widening their eyes as if trying to warn Izzie about something.

"Why?" The girl innocently asks, she is definitely not getting the point.

Between coughs the words "Portrait of naked Aunt Sophie" could be heard coming from Colin's mouth. Sterling's eyes widen at the statement.

"What's wrong with that? It's not like he has never seen boobs before!" Autumn moves to hit the girl, but Jake stops her.

"Well, not our mom's breasts, besides the portrait doesn't show her breats..." Emily clarifies

"Completely" Autumn adds.

"It doesn't?" Izzie asks puzzle. "Then, where did I see your mother's boobs?" The twins and Sterling's eyes widen, Jake's jaw drops to the floor, Collin is assaulted by a cough attack, real cough. "Oh yeah, it was that time I entered her bathroom without knocking..." She concludes.

"What the hell were you doing in my parents' bathroom?" Autumn asks. Izzie shrugs.

"I needed a tampon and I couldn't find my mom's." The boy's noses wrinkle in disgust, while the girls seems satisfied enough with the answer and are willing to finish that weird conversation until Izzie adds she needed it to see how much it swelled under water.

There is an awkward pause until Collin softly whispers to Izzie. "So... Aunt Sophie's boobs..."

"Collin, you finish that sentence I swear to God I will kill you!" Emily threatens, silencing him.

They are rambling again about where Sterling will sleep and once again some other are suggesting he should leave when he loses it.

"THAT'S ENOUGH! I'll sleep on the couch on Nate's office, now go to bed, all of you! And don't show your faces until tomorrow!"

He ends up on the couch tossing and turning over and over again, wondering if it is worth getting killed by Eliot Spencer for sending those kids to his secret prison...


	23. Chapter 23

**This is for Anubus D. Wicked for his enormous support and of course, for Ourison. **

**Just a remember: the kids all have "official" names and "real" names, since their parents had them under Aliases to keep them safe. Jake's official surnames are White (from Alice White) and Miller (Joseph Miller, the FBI agent Hardison incorporates) so at school, that is the name he has to learn how to write, therefor I corrected that. I also changed the first part freeing to his difficult towards writing said name; I hope it's clear now. **

Jake was the child that couldn't stop thinking, brain too fast for his own good. He was the boy that was too big for his own body, always pouring through the pores of his skin, never free. The boy that was always caged. The one other people thought was dumb because he couldn't keep a conversation straight because god damn, how could he when his brain was constantly focusing and blurring on ten different things. At age eight he still couldn't write his own (official) name; writing Jake, his first name, was fine; to write White he had to try really hard, but hell, by the time he got his last name, Miller, he was lost and _Oh__, is that butterfly outside? She has so many beautiful colours. I wish I was a __butterfly...Ohhh__. Some boys are playing ball, I'd like to play ball with __them...I__ am itchy; I wish I could get up. Maybe Ms. Winters will let me go to the bathroom again. No? __Ok__. Oh, right, I should be writing my name. Where was I? M,I,L... This is boring; maybe Nick wants to play noughts and crosses with me..._

It went like that every day, no matter how hard he tried, and he tried really hard, yet he still was the disturbing boy that kept doing stupid things and breaking bones because he was too dumb to learn how to keep safe...

But his family loved him no matter what, and they never called him dumb, even when even he thought so. Izzie sat with him and they played video games, not speaking, and he liked that, not having to focus on words. He liked video games: there were noises and bright lights and movements and so many buttons it was not possible for him to be bored. Izzie was cool to play with; she even let him win sometimes…

The twins read him, knew him so they never got mad when he zoned out of a conversation and they would always pretend it didn't matter. Collin broke a boy's noise because he called Jake retarded. "Now, that was retarded!" the blond spat at the bleeding, crying boy. People never called him names again, but he still knew what people thought, what the teachers thought and it hurt. It hurt the way his parents glanced at him after every meeting with his teachers; he was going to fail the year. He was going to get suspended since he was too disorderly (special, which was just a nice way of calling him mentally slow, because he sometimes stole things from others). He knew he should be quiet, he knew he shouldn't disturb him classmates, he knew he wasn't supposed to get up of a chair unless the teacher allowed him to, he knew he wasn't supposed to crawl to the school's roof.

Then again, he couldn't stop it and he hated himself; he was his own prisoner. He wanted to be like Izzie, who could play video games, watch TV and actually have a conversation at the same time. He wanted to be like the twins that knew when to shut up. He wanted to be like Collin that could sit still for three hours; he wanted to be everyone but him.

Instead he was the boy that ended up on the hospital almost every week with a broken bone because he kept climbing on tall trees or perching himself on fences, and he hated it too, the looks doctors gave his parents, judging them either because they thought they were irresponsible or because they thought Hardison and Parker were hitting him. It was his fault...

As he grew, he became desperate. He turned aggressive and sleep deprived, as he was too agitated to sleep even if he was exhausted to no end, so Parker and Hardison finally did the thing they least wanted to do: they followed every outsider's advice and took the child to a doctor, a neurologist. He was hyperactive, the doctor said, and the solution to that was medication. It turns out that in order to actually calm him down the daily doses had to be huge.

The teachers said he was fine, after all he wasn't disappearing, he wasn't disturbing others, he wasn't falling of trees breaking his arm for the third time, he wasn't stealing anything; no, he was quiet and passive and for the teachers that was good enough. They didn't care for him anymore; Jake Miller was a boy that, according to them, should be on a special needs class because he was definitely not able to learn like all the other children. However, his parents were too stubborn to see that, so the teachers could do nothing; they let him be, not really paying attention to him.

So Parker and Hardison watched as their beloved son languished and transformed into a sort of zombie, a child that had none of the joy and energy they had once seen, a ghost boy that threw himself into a chair and stayed there for hours, head buzzing like he was high on something bad and illegal, dead eyes locked on the emptiness, mouth slightly open as he breathed. Before he wasn't able to go through an entire conversation, now, he would just stare, not listening at all. And, obviously, he still wasn't able to write his own name...

He hated the medication, hated what it made to him, caging him even more, muffling him so he couldn't even scream how he felt and damn, he wanted to scream until he puked out his lungs yet his brain was too drugged to react...

It went like that for five weeks until Parker finally had enough, had him stop the medication and he was him again, wide awake and unbearable. The first day of school after that he was so energetic he couldn't sit quite like he should, he was incredibly bored and feeling so restrained he decided to see if he could leave his place and steal all his classmates' pencils without being noticed. He was caught and suspended for a week.

At home he started running around, pretending he was a race car while Parker was trying to figure how to break into some vault, he knocked her coffee mug on the building's blueprints. That was when she lost it. One moment she was screaming at him, the other she was crying. It scared him.

"Mommy, why are you crying?" He asked, as he pulled his teddy against his chest.

"I can't do it anymore! This is just too much...too much..." was all she said, her face in her hands as she cried her failure as a mother. But Jake knew he was the one to blame so he ran away.

They found him five days later. Well, Maggie found him since he ended up at her home thinking that maybe she could adopt him, that maybe she wouldn't cry like mom did, that mom and dad wouldn't fight anymore, that Collin wouldn't have to beat the crap out of the other kids and the twins didn't have to pretend they didn't wish he was... someone else. That Izzie could play video games with someone that talked while playing...

Maggie immediately called his parents, and they rushed to him. Upon questioning the boy, they made him realize something: he wasn't dumb at all (not that they had ever believed it).The last time he had been at Maggie's house when he was three; that had been five years ago yet he had found his way, avoiding all kinds of conflicts; Jake was an escaping genius. Parker asked him if he knew how to go the beach, he did, he knew every curve, every stop, every shop he passed by; Jake as it turned out, had a photographic spatial memory. No, he wasn't dumb, he was brilliant.

But at home everything went back to the same, he wanted to run away from himself and he couldn't.

Hardison found him one day in his room, clothes ripped apart, bed sheets on the floor, broken toys on the floor, food against the walls, glass everywhere and a little eight-year old boy crying in agony, swaying real fast against the wall, so fast the back of his head was hitting it.

Alec grabbed his son and pulled him from the wall, afraid he was going to hurt himself badly if he didn't stop.

"Stop that! What are you doing? You're going to kill yourself!" He pleaded shoving the boy by his shoulders, mad and desperate for not being able to ease his son's pain. Jake cried.

"I want it to stop! I just want it to stop!" He shoved his way away from Hardison falling on his knees and crying more, then curling up in fetal position, rocking himself on the floor hugging his knees and repeating the words, "make it stop, please make it stop!" over and over again.

"Jake, sweetie, what is it that you want to stop?" Hardison asked, his hands shaking. He had seen a kid go crazy like that once at Nana's home, he'd been taken to a psychiatric institution and had killed himself years later.

"The jail! I want to leave, but I can't! I never can!" And he got up and hugged a giant teddy bear, hugging so hard, rocking it against his chest as if it was his last hope and the hacker was sure, if that teddy bear was a person it would have chocked by now.

Hardison sighed and stared at the boy, he was so scared, he felt so impotent, that was his son, the one that was bullied at school and ostracized by students and teachers ever since a very young age, the one that always felt he didn't belong in the family, the one that had been so beaten down he thought so little of himself, he didn't have the dignity to walk around with his head up, the one that asked him every time he fought with Parker if that was his fault and even though he always said no he could see the boy's heart cracking a little more, the one boy that even had whispered under his breath the world would be a much better place if he weren't born.

"What Jail is that, honey? Can you tell?" He reached his hand, but didn't dare the touch the boy, he had seen Parker panicking like that once and by making the mistake of touching her he had almost lost a hand, but he wanted to hug Jake tight on his arms, to make him feel safe, to give him peace. _Please God, give this boy the strength he needs to carry on. Please God, protect him from all evil_. And Hardison was not one to pray.

The boy nodded, biting his lip so hard it bled, and softy whispered, words weak coming from his mouth, like paper that would turn in ashes the moment it touched the hot air.

"My head..." Hardison gulped, maybe it wasn't just hyperactivity, maybe he was really sick, maybe he was schizoid or bipolar or something, no matter what, Hardison would fight for his boy until the day he died.

"Can you tell me more about it?" Jake was gripping the head and body of his teddy so hard he was decapitating it. "It's okay if you can't find any words, it happens sometimes..."

"Daddy, do you think I am crazy?" Yes, yes, he did and it was his son and he should have a little faith. Faith, however, hadn't saved Kevin and if Jake was living the hell Hardison thought he was, faith wasn't going to bring him back either. Still, Hardison would sell his soul to the devil if it bought his son a happy life.

"No!" He lied. "I just have a little problem understanding your pain, that's all but I don't think you're crazy, neither do I blame you!"

"It's like this room... Just like this room except every time I get out I am back in again and I can't escape and there are all the noises..."

"Noises?" Okay, the boy was hearing voices; that certainly was not good... "Can you tell me more about them?" Jake didn't spoke; instead he got up and started screaming at the top of his lungs, bouncing around the walls and punching and kicking the air and every object around him as if he was fighting for his life, no, not for his life. For Freedom.

He stopped after a while, no more air on his lungs, he fell on the floor and stayed there in silence, tears steal flooding his eyes.

"You are broken, boy!" Hardison said. Jake nodded.

"I know..."

"Remember what Collin did to his remote control chopper when it got broken last week?" Hardison asked on a raspy voice.

"He threw it off the roof and Uncle Eliot grounded him." Hardison got up.

"I am going to throw you off the roof!"

Parker turned back as the door burst open, quickly whipping away the tears from her eyes, expecting news, any kind of news because she too had heard the storm going inside that room and it had hurt her just as much as it hurt Alec or Jake, maybe even more since she couldn't stop thinking that it was her fault because there was something wrong with her and she was all things broken and that baby boy had lived inside her for nine months and maybe it had broken him too.

This day had been the worst. Jake was off the meds again and his teacher didn't like it when he was off the meds, as always the child hadn't been productive and to make it worse, instead of being quite on his corner, he had struck the class like a hurricane and he swore, he swore he had tried, he had tried, _momma, really __hard _but he still couldn't write his full, official, name. Because of that he felt so worthless that when he got home, he locked himself in his room and suddenly they all heard the sounds of crashing objects and pained screams. When the silence came, heavy, filled with its own shouting her husband walked in and now he was walking with Jake on his shoulder, not fighting, like he was a potato bag.

"Jake is broken." Hardison stated. "So I am going to throw him off the roof, are you in?" and she smiled, immediately knowing what he meant.

Jake stood still, eyes closed as the breeze swept his face, soft, dragging the freeing smells of rain and grass with it as his mother checked on his harness for the third time in a row and his father synchronized his computer to all the bleepy machines attached to his body.

He opened his eyes as his mother happily whispered in his ear they were ready to go. He smiled, a happy, relieved smile, full of hope, hope for brighter days because he was sure this was going to be his break out.

"What are these things for?" He asked, mentioning all the electronic devices daddy had attached to his torso and neck.

"Your dad is paranoid." Mommy replied, winking at Hardison, she too smiling for the first time in a long, long time and was it lovely his mommy's smile, shinny, like the sun.

"They measure your heart beat and breathing pattern. Just to make sure your body doesn't shut down on the fall..." Daddy answered, than he approached him, crouched on the floor and kissed him on the cheek, hugging tight. "I love you dearly son, don't ever forget that no matter what happens daddy is always going to love you."

"Sure!" Jake replied not quite listening anymore, his eyes locked on the sky, it had always seemed untouchable that sky, but now, now it seemed so reachable, so big, just as big as he needed it to be, not to feel locked. "How are we going to this?" He asked as Parker put a harness herself.

"We jump together the first few times, after that if your body reacts fine to the fall I'll teach you how to jump on your own..."

"But it's so windy!" He stated, scared and thrilled at the same time.

"Jaky, you think too much all the time; that is what's got you trapped, falling is about running free and not thinking." Parker said, locking his harness with hers the same way she'd done with Sophie on their first job so many years ago.

"Hey! Don't tell him that! Do you know what happens if he jumps without doing the proper calculations..."

"Alec, relax, I am the one doing the thinking this time!"

And just like that she jumped, taking him with her, just like that he was free. He soon learned how to jump on his own and three months after that he was allowed to jump without asking for permission, doing that whenever he felt he needed to. And, he wasn't dumb anymore (never had been in the first place). Parker and Hardison sat with him for three hours making him write both of his complete names, the official (Jake White Miller) and the unofficial one (Jake Parker Hardison), with the promise he'd learn how to get into the vents after. He already knew how to pick locks; it was something he had learned as a small child, on his own, so Parker got him so padlocks and he started taking them to school, unlocking them when his hands got too agitated, keeping him busy. He had a motivation now, "Jake, if you are able to sit through an entire class, mommy will teach you how to break into the Cairo Museum of Art!" Next year Jake was placed in advanced classes; turns out he was really smart, smarter than Izzie actually. His former teacher was fired.

He wasn't being bullied anymore; he could talk to his cousins and sister, he could play with them, he belonged because now, and even though sometimes he still felt trapped inside his head he knew how to break free; every time he screamed, the voices weren't bouncing on the walls coming back to haunt him. He was so happy, his laugh was so real, clear like water, contagious even.

And it went like that for years, until a few weeks ago when daddy disappeared and the voices inside his head slowly started to rise, screaming louder and louder; he thought that maybe if he slept his days away he wouldn't hear the voices because this time, jumping out of a building wasn't enough. Sleeping didn't help either because he was afraid of what he might find when he woke. The fact Izzie, his fearless older sister started freaking about it too didn't help; one day he woke up with her telling him they weren't safe and she was surrounded by all of that paraphernalia so he felt unsafe too, like there was no harness stopping him from crushing against the ground. Finally, he realized the voices were calling his dad so he thought that maybe if he surrounded himself by all of his clothes, if he felt dad's smell that would fool the voices, but of course, the voices were him so it didn't work.

When Emily dragged them all out of home, he disappeared, feeling the need to run, just run, away from all of that, away from himself. The others found him standing on a parking lot staring at a Prius.

"This car can take us to Florida!" He said and that feeling alone relieved a little bit of all the weight he carried. When he was driving, full speed, he felt free.

But now, at night in bed he rolled and rolled again, and once again he was crawling out of his skin (since Sterling had taken all the objects that had ever made them free) so he got up and went to the roof; maybe the wind would help or maybe, just maybe, he could just jump to freedom, seconds of falling followed by nothing else...

He walked to the edge of the building and stood her, his balance the only thing keeping him for falling to his death. He closed his eyes and opened his arms, feeling the wind pushing him slightly to the emptiness in front of him, listening to the sounds of a city that would keep going without him.

What happened if he stepped forward? Would people really miss him? He didn't know, and he would never find out because a voice behind him stopped whatever thought he might have about jumping.

"Ever thought of falling?" He turned back to find his sister behind him, bracing herself against the wind. He shrugged.

"I jumped many times before." He said, staring into the lights of the building in front of them that little by little would disappear leaving, them in the lonely darkness.

"That is not what I asked."

He didn't need to look to know she was standing by his side, as vulnerable to an accidental fall as him. "None would ever suspect...Poor boy lost his balance and fell..." Her voice sounded mocking to his ears.

"You would." He turned to face her. "I just wonder what it would be like, to have nothing holding me, to be completely free..."

"Like a bird..."

"Like a star." She smiled.

"Everything's going to be fine." She replied softly after a brief silence, answering the question he hadn't spoken; he snorted.

"No! It's not!" Jake yelled suddenly, steeping away from her. "You panicked!" He accused matter of factually. Izzie closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath.

She knew what Jake meant. She had in fact, had the first panic attack of her entire life; she had truly been scared and she had never been frightened before. Elisabeth "Izzie" Parker Hardison did not know fear; even as a small child she had never been scared. She hadn't been scared of the dark, of dogs or spiders, of thunderstorms. Nothing. She had only had one fear, but until now it had always been irrelevant. She was afraid of losing her parents. Again.

No, Izzie didn't remember the mom and dad that had loved her so deeply and lost her so prematurely, she didn't remember faces, sounds or smells, but she had always felt those people had truly wanted her and she had always felt love for them; she'd even missed them, wondered what it would be like If they hadn't died, if they'd been her family. Her greatest fear was to lose her parents again and ever since the team had gone to Florida she felt she was not safe anymore, she felt alone.

She was surrounded by four other people yet that had been the loneliest time of her life and - even though she had felt less scared inside that car, since it had felt so normal...so right - going to prison had only caused her to feel worse. That was the day she had to survive alone, and by alone she meant no parents around to save her, no security net. She felt she had failed.

Sterling coming to them, the man that had been described by her parents in so many horror stories had only unleashed what she had felt during that time. That if Hardison died a part of her with also be gone and she shall forever be empty and broken, that no one would ever be able to understand what she was; happily, Collin, had brought her back to her senses, assuring her Sterling was not taking her away, besides and to top it all he had promised.

Izzie, knew, of course, that promise wasn't enough; she wasn't that much out of reality yet that little piece of good will from Collin had reminded her she wasn't alone, never would be... and now, now she was ready to face whatever was coming. She stared at her little brother - it was unbelievable how much he looked like Hardison - and she told him the cold, cruel truth.

"I panicked, but I am fine now and I guarantee you everything is going to be alright one way or the other..." She said softly, a melancholic smile drawn on her face, her eyes as sweet and caring as none had ever seen.

"How can it be alright if he... if he..." The boy sobbed without finishing the sentence. Izzie too, found tears falling from her eyes. With his face in her hands, she spoke with him, not hiding anything.

"He can die, Jake, we all know that is a chance, but it's also his choice!" The boy flinched a way for a fraction of second, not understanding what the hell his sister was talking about.

"He knew the life he chose was dangerous and even though he was less likely to die than everyone else on the team, he was still aware of that possibility, yet he still did it, he still chose to turn the world a little bit better. And, if he does die we will all be sad, we will miss him every day of our lives and we will cry from times to times, cursing the day Nana called. We always be a little bit empty, a bit wounded and I can assure you time doesn't cure these sort of things, no, you just learn to live with the pain hoping that someday you'll be at peace with it."

Jake was staring at her now, with big wide eyes, drinking every word that spilled out his sister's mouth. "And I can assure you that if he dies he'll die happy. We all know daddy didn't want to die of old age; he wanted to die as hero. And, we all be damned if he doesn't. After all, do you know some way more honourable of dying than doing trying to save your family?"

The boy shook his head no, his big eyes were dark lakes of sad. He wiped his nose at the back of his hand and softly asked what were they going to do. The redheaded smiled and stroked his face with her hand. "We will make him a homage, we will bring father Paul, Nana, Maggie and even Tara and we all will talk about the things we love the most about him and how much he had an impact on our lives, then we will bury him and let him be at piece..." Tears were shining on her face, illuminating her smile. She was still scared yet she knew daddy would want her to live on.

"We can't do that!" Jake exclaimed, decidedly. She smiled at him, cleaning a few tears from his face; the building in front of them was almost completely dark now.

"We will have to let go eventually..." And it would tear her apart, she knew.

"He wouldn't want to be buried in a coffin." Her brother replied, shaking his head, staring at the tip of his shoes. "He has claustrophobia; we can't do that to him..." She smiled more, between her tears, touched that Jake, of all people, remembered and respected that detail.

"We'll cremate him, then. He will put his ashes on a R2-D2 urn and we will place it on our living room so he'll always be with us. Don't you think that's better?"

Jake was openly crying now so she pulled him away from the edge and hugged him. When he was calm, she kept speaking, because she needed to say the words and he needed to hear them.

"Eventually we will move on with our lives and we do what he'd want us to do. We will fight to be happy and make him proud; we will glue the family together because they will need our help too..." He pushed away slightly to look her in the eye, her face almost covered in shadows; the building was completely dark now.

"Nate and Eliot will feel too guilty since they are convinced it's their duty to protect everyone else and aunt Sophie won't be able to pick the pieces on her own. And mom..." She sighed deeply before continuing. "Mom will need to be remembered that we are still here, she will need to be remembered how to live without the love of her life and we need to be strong for her, so she can be strong to because if we fall apart, I don't think she's going to make it, Jake..."

Jake fell into her hug again, embracing her tight, as if she was the harness keeping him from crushing against the ground, like a bug against a car window.

"I think we should divide the ashes in three different parts because Nana should have some if it too, so he can spend eternity with all the people he loves the most; he'd like to be looking over Nana too, after all…" He said when he broke the hug, even though he was still crying, he felt stronger; he knew he had no other choice. His sister nodded at the idea, that sad smile never living her lips.

"What about the third part?"

"Ashes are good fertilizers and when mom and dad first started working together he told her to buy a plant for the offices and she did. He spent so much time taking care of that plant before he found out it was a plastic one..." And even Jake smiled a little at that.

"I remember that story..."

"We can grow a plant, mom could take care of it, nurture it, watch it grow strong and flourish..." Izzie was so proud, her brilliant little brother, had so much of dad and didn't even see it.

"That would be a nice idea, that way a part of dad will always live..."

"It can't too big though...Small enough for transportation if something goes down and we have to move it..." He continued, his brain planning that the same way it would plan a bank robbery.

"Yeah, that seems right. Maybe one of those carnivorous plants; a plant that actually does something..." He nodded too and she pulled his arm to head them inside.

"We are all sleeping together tonight; the others are waiting for us." She informed casually. Jake's eyes widened.

"I thought we were never sleeping together again after the last time." She shrugged.

"Emily has a plan..." and she kept walking.

"Does Sterling now about this?" He asked from behind her. Izzie rolled her eyes, since when did that boy care about James Freaking Sterling? She stopped on her tracks, twirling on her heels, causing him to almost bump into her.

"Does it matter?" She asked on a cold, rebelling tone. He looked down, rubbing his neck.

"Truth is, if dad dies... all the things we said..." He paused, catching his breath, she said nothing. "I don't know if I can be that strong..." There were tears in his eyes again, he was so ashamed, the redheaded bit her lip than smiled, appeasing him.

"You are the strongest person I know, Jake, of course you will, besides you won't be alone. I'll be there with you."

"But will you _always _be there?" He enquired. She nodded and gave him her hand.

"I'll walk through hell with you and I'll do it with a smile…"

And they both walked inside feeling a mix of fear and hope.


	24. Chapter 24

**Hey there beloved readers, once again the adventures of our dear children/teens continue as they try to defeat the evil James Sterling and conquer what's rightfully theirs. **

**I know I haven't uploaded in a long time and I am really sorry, but my life took a few turns south and I don't have the time I wished I had to write. Once again, feedback is everything for it helps me evolve in my writing and it makes me happy so if you could take a few seconds to let me know you are reading and want to know where this is going, that would be lovely. **

**I hope to be posting the next chapter soon and hopefully by the end of May I'll have to time to write as often and as much as I wish! **

When Jake and Izzie got to the room the twins were looking very upset. Collin was covering his right eye in pain and Sophie's portrait had been covered with a towel.

"We told you not to look!" Autumn shouted, her British accent sounding so obvious.

"I wasn't looking!" Collin spat back. Emily just arched an eyebrow at him, not believing a word of his. "Who taught you how to punch like that?" He said, rushing into the Ford's bathroom, searching the cabinets for ice and only realising later that didn't make sense at all.

"You did!" They both said at the same time and Autumn walked out. Collin hissed when Sophie's hair blower fell on his toe.

"Damn it!" He shouted; Izzie and Jake both giggled.

When Autumn walked in five minutes later with a pack of ice inside a kitchen cloth, Emily was explaining the plan to the rest of the team.

"...since Jake and Izzie are the ones that move the most, they will sleep on the edges of the bed. And since I am the one with bad morning mood, I'll sleep between Autumn and Collin because they don't usually bother me in the morning." She shot a glare at Jake that meant everything. Izzie nodded and jumped on the bed, asking her brother which edge he wanted to take.

"I am sorry, but we can't sleep like that!" Collin growled, pressing the pack of ice against his eye.

"Why not?" Emily asked, or Autumn, since they were side to side and the latter one only used her British accent when she was annoyed, so there was no way to tell.

"I have to stay on the left edge to protect you all if someone walks in!" He clarified.

"And who is going to walk in? The boogie man?" The twins asked at the same time, arms crossed in disbelief.

" Worse." The hacker said from her place in the bed. "Sterling." And she shivered a little, she still not comfortable saying You-know-who's name.

They all had a fifteen minute discussion about how they'd change things in order not to get Jake or Izzie killed in the morning for waking Emily up; the girl had a worse morning mood than Eliot. Finally, they decided Collin would stay on the left with Emily between him and Autumn. Jake would stay on the right edge because he was the one that moved the most, and his sister would be between him and Autumn since she slept like the dead anyway, so there shouldn't be a problem. Half an hour later the only one awake was Jake, his hand grabbing Izzie's wrist so he'd feel her pulse, so he'd know she was there.

Sterling woke up when the sun rose, dazzled, because he had forgotten to shut the curtains. He wasn't even comfortable on the sofa so he decided to get up, and make the kid's breakfast; they all had started on the wrong foot and maybe he could make things up by cooking them pancakes. However, when he walked in the hallway he noticed the twin's bedroom doors were open and they weren't inside. He left the Ford's apartment to search Hardison's and Spencer's; none of the kids were in their rooms. He panicked for a moment thinking those little brats had run away during the night. Then his detective thinking sank in and he started searching the house, looking for them. Twenty minutes later the only thing left was Maggie's precious bedroom and the Ford's master-bedroom. He went to Maggie's first, though he had expected to find at least Izzie inside, it was as empty as the rest of the house.

He headed to the Ford's. The moment he opened the door he blacked out.

Sterling woke lying on the living room's couch with a migraine and confused as to what had happened.

"Collin threw a gun at you, that's what happened!" One of the twins, the one that was sitting in front of him, said.

"Because Collin's is the kind of guy that throws guns at people instead of shooting them!" Jake snorted from Sterling's side.

"I told you! It was the first heavy thing I found on the damn drawer, I didn't even look at it!" Collin spat back from a distance. The Interpol agent closed his eyes and opened them again decided to restore order, he tried to get up only to find out his hands were cuffed behind his back, as well as his feet.

"Where did you get cuffs?" He asked, he was not mad, just curious.

"There were four pairs in the drawer along with the gun." Collin informed and Sterling realized the boy must be in the kitchen.

"I like the furry ones!" And he saw Izzie for the first time. She was sitting on the coffee table in front of him, twirling a pair of pink furred cuffs on her fingers. He heard a loud growl.

"What furry ones?" the twin sitting in front of him asked. "Oh! Honey, please put that down!" The brunette said blushing slightly.

"But I like them!" Izzie insisted.

"Izzie, put that down!" A girl's voice said from behind him, it was the other twin.

"But..."

"Put it down!" The twin shouted from behind Sterling. Izzie shrugged and placed the cuffs down, Sterling laughed when he realized what the cuffs really were for.

"What are we doing with him?" Jake asked as he sat next to his sister, a huge bowl in his hand. James stretched his neck to see what was inside; he almost got sick when he saw what it was, that boy was eating a mixture of potato ships, popcorn, caramel bars and dried colourful cereal for breakfast, along with a bottle of orange soda.

"That's your breakfast?" He asked, feeling like he might have a heart attack if he ate all of that. Jake happily nodded as he shoved a handful of cereal and popcorn in his mouth.

"Want some?" Jake asked as he extended the bowl towards him. Sterling's nose wrinkled in disgust. He wouldn't take it even if he could.

Izzie slapped her brother's hand.

"Don't feed the prisoner!" She yelped.

"Do you all have to speak so damn loud!" the twin standing behind him asked, revealing Emily was the one talking since despite her bad humour, her accent was still as American as always.

"Speaking of feeding." Collin cut out, showing up with a tray full of food. "You are putting that crap down and eating the pancakes I made."

"Pancakes!" Izzie said as she jumped from her place, grabbing a fork and attacking an entire mountain of pancakes.

"Can't I have both?" Jake asked with pleading eyes.

"No." Autumn said as she sat next to her cousin, grabbing a plate herself.

"Come eat something, Emily!" Collin asked as he too, sat next to the others. The voice behind Sterling replied on a muffled tone that she didn't want to. "C'mone darlin', I got you a surprise!" Jake was pouring syrup on huge mountain of pancakes, the bowl of crappy food already forgotten.

Emily finally showed up in front of the adult, she was still in her pyjamas , her hair nothing than a wild cascade of dark curls.

"What is it?" She asked with her arms crossed. The boy got up and went to the kitchen, coming back with a plate full of strawberries. The girl's eyes widened and she went to hug him, kissing on the cheek. "You're the best! Where did you get them?" and she sat on in his place, pulling a single pancake to her plate. Jake was already on his second plate.

"I bought them." The boy said and he sat on the floor, creating a barrier between James and the other kids.

"With what money?" Autumn questioned.

"I pick pocketed Sterling while he was unconscious..." He replied with a nod towards the cuffed man lying on the couch.

"Speaking of which, what are we doing with him?" Autumn asked her sister.

"We could kill him!" The redheaded immediately replied, laughter mirrored all over her face. Sterling gulped, that girl had some serious issues.

"I know a place where we could dump the body!" Collin said. "Out of the road's sight, if we buried deep enough the first thing to find him will be a coyote..." Autumn hit him on the shoulder.

"Stop it! You're being creepy!"

Collin laughed.

"Are we killing him or not?" Elizabeth insisted. Sterling furrowed his brow at her.

"Are you the type of girls that kill cats?" He asked, honestly interested in her answer.

"No!" Izzie said.

"She is!" Jake replied, laughing at her, his sister reacting by crossing her arms and pouting.

"Actually, she enjoys the skinning part more; she used to do it with alive cats, but they scratched her." Collin added with a joyful smile and a wink.

"That is true!" Autumn agreed, giving Izzie a smile and a wink so she knew it was a joke[,] which of course, Sterling now knew too.

"So... you really are a sociopath!" James concluded.

"Seriously now, what are we doing with him?" Autumn asked before Izzie could reply to Sterling's provocation.

"What about REALEASE ME FROM THESE CUFFS!" He finally exploded.

"Only if you give us the codes to open the panic room!" Emily said calmly from her place. The other four kids looked at her and grinned.

Sterling laughed. The kids knew the codes to the panic room, of course, since the sole purpose of that thing was their protection and knowing that Sterling had changed the passwords aware they wouldn't be able to break in. That room was his trump.

"Do you really think I will give you the codes like that, you little brats?" He asked, that was going to be so fun.

"Either that or we will leave you there, letting you starve and living on your own filth until our parents get back!" Emily replied.

"Eww, I don't want him to dirty the couch!" Autumn replied, but quickly shut up after noticing her sister's glance.

"Well, I know you won't let me die." Sterling said, that was the only thing he was sure about, as long as Emily was there he was safe-ish. "Besides, I once spent five days inside a car's trunk, I think I can manage..." The girl smirked at him. God, how could she so similar to Nathan? [T]hat really scared Sterling; even though she was a kid he could see the physical similarities to her mother, Emily was on her way to being a very beautiful, seductive woman and, with that brain of hers, that was really dangerous.

"You see, I thought you'd say that." She paused, staring right at his eyes. "But you forgot something!" And Jake and Izzie immediately got up and left; they already knew what she was talking about.

"We have full access to your cell phone and computer now!" Emily's smile was crooked, shadowy, evil and just like that Sterling knew there was no hope for her, she had crossed the line between right and wrong so long ago she couldn't even see it anymore.

Izzie came back with his laptop and turned it on.

"How long have it been since you spoke to your daughter, Sterling?" Sterling went pale, not answering, he had a feeling he knew where that was going and he didn't like it. He didn't need to answer of course.

"Ohhh, he has her as "Sweetie" on his contacts." Izzie said and Sterling shivered, he wasn't a God believer, but maybe now was the right time to start praying. "He also hasn't spoken with her since three days before he took us from jail, no records of phone calls, messages or e-mails."

"Probably he reduced contact to keep her safe from whatever bad-guys he was chasing..." Autumn reflected with a tilt of her head.

"Which means...poor little Olivia doesn't know her daddy is taking care of us. Good!" And Emily's smile widened as she stared at Sterling. Collin drank the last of his glass of milk.

"What are you thinking of, darlin'?" Collin asked.

"Let's steal ourselves Olivia's worse nightmare!" Emily said as she got up.


End file.
